X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Lean manufacturing


Lean manufacturing

Norman Bodek wrote the following in his foreword to a reprint of Ford's Today and Tomorrow:

Most of the basic goals of lean manufacturing are common sense, and documented examples can be seen as early as Benjamin Franklin.

These concepts of flexibility and change are principally required to allow production leveling (Heijunka), using tools like SMED, but have their analogues in other processes such as research and development (R&D).

A non exhaustive list of such tools would include: SMED, Value Stream Mapping, Five S, Kanban (pull systems), poka-yoke (error-proofing), Total Productive Maintenance, elimination of time batching, mixed model processing, Rank Order Clustering, single point scheduling, redesigning working cells, multi-process handling and control charts (for checking mura).



see also

Design for lean manufacturing

For example, the following methods and business tools can be used by organizations within the design for lean manufacturing methodology: Value Stream Mapping, Design for Six Sigma, Visual Control, QFD, DFMA, and Taguchi methods.

Keith Chadwick

On leaving the company he joined Aston based company Radshape Sheet Metal in June 2000 as Lean Manufacturing consultant, later becoming Sales/Quality Director.