Implementing Lean Manufacturing Principles for Efficient Production Processes

Implementing Lean Manufacturing Principles for Efficient Production Processes

Tushar Soliwal
IE Supervisor at Pratibha Syntex Ltd.
Pithampur, Indore
Email: tusharsoliwal01@gmail.com

Introduction:
Lean manufacturing is a concept which was started by TPS in Japan. Taichi ohno is known as father of lean management who introduced the concept of lean manufacturing and it’s technique in automobile industry before World war II. His contributions to developing the concept and techniques of lean manufacturing is now become a core activity in different manufacturing industries. The principles of lean helps to organizations to boost the operational process and run the manufacturing operations smoothly. So to implement the techniques of lean and the principles of lean is very critical to generate profit by eliminating waste, reducing cost of manufacturing which ultimately improved the customer satisfaction and enhance their experience. Now let’s dive into what are the lean manufacturing principles and how can you implement these principles into the production systems,

Lean Manufacturing Principles:
There are mainly five different principles of lean manufacturing which will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of work by boosting the production and productivity of goods by introducing value added activities. These five principles includes,

1. Define Value
2. Map Value streams
3. Create Flow
4. Establish Pull
5. Pursuit Perfection

The above mentioned principles are the important and basic principle which focuses on Kaizen that means continues improvement. These principles are implemented at different stage of the production process, starting from product development, research and development department, up to packaging and shipping. At the end we have to deal with its positive approach of improvement of productivity. We can implement these principles in our day to day life and also in small to larger sector of manufacturing; in short these principles served various long term benefits for the organization [1]. Lets go through principles of lean one by one.

1. Define Value:
The first principle of lean management is value to the customer. It’s simply means what customers are looking for into your product or service from their perspective. Generally it is a type of driving force which influences the customers to buy the goods from you and it indicates why they will buy your product? What is the perspective behind buying the product and what kind of outcome they will get? If you delivery the value to the customer through your product then at the end customer definitely by your products. And you were not providing value to the customer which they are looking into your product then definitely customer will not came again to buy or purchase of those goods. Ultimately sales will fall. One of the important things in product is price of that product. Price is top down approach which enables seller to set a proper pricing of the goods which is based on the amount of value of the product which they are deliver to the customer. So in this principles, we have to do different research and analysis of different customers, we have to take care about what customers are looking for? What customers want?  And what are the demands of customer from your product? What kinds of features they are looking at the best price in your product? This analysis plays a very important role to set up a particular value and particular price of the product. So that seller can make profit through customer satisfaction [1].

2. Map Value streams:
Map the value streams of the product are mainly refers to the life cycle of your product or service. It is simply how your product or service will behave into the global market between the stages of lifecycle, starting from introduction stage to the declining or disposal stage of the product. We have to map the value stream based on our supply chain management which includes all the types goods which required to made our products. Which includes transportation of raw material, quality and quality of raw materials, features of raw materials, production processes, transportation cost that brings required to manufacture the goods and other activities. So mapping the values team of your product is very important stage. Here different categories of waste which not add value into your product are identified and eliminated and best areas to improve are suggested. As I mention earlier lean management deals with elimination or deduction of wastages from production activities so we have to focus on value adding processes which efficiently streamlined as possible. So through values in mapping we can identify problems as well as opportunity to remove the wasteful activities to optimize our production process. So values in mapping provide identification of process an elimination of wastages based on three categories with which are..

• Value adding activities or process
• Non Value adding activities or process
• Necessary Non Value adding activities or process

These are areas of processes which improve overall efficiency of production process. So map the value stream in production process is very important principle [1].

3. Create Flow:
The third principle of lean manufacturing is to create and maintain the flow of values stream. It’s one of the most synopsis among five principles. But it is take worth of time to understand and implement. Whenever any waste is generated into the production process, then the total value stream get blocked and stops moving forward. These kinds of waste are mainly generated due to following things

• Lost time
• Additional movement
• Extra storage
• Additional costs
• Delays
• Reduced efficiency
• Improper management

These all things which defy the principles of lean. To make our value stream efficient and should have a regular smoothly flow, we have to we should work together in a more balanced way. Instead of doing things separately, when we do this, our production process achieves higher efficiency and we can improve our production process at much less time. This makes things work better and production process more flexible [2].

4. Establish Pull:
Establishing a best pull system for production process is one of the most important principles of manufacturing. In traditional manufacturing process manufacturer produce goods best on forecasting activities, but lean manufacturing deals with manufacturing of goods whenever there is demand of it. Full system of lean overcomes the disadvantages of traditional manufacturing. This principle helps to manufacture to maintain the flow of manufacturing process by ensuring that nothing is made in advance of being ordered. Based on the demands and needs from the customer things are ordered and manufactured. This principle is similar to the Justin time lean manufacturing. Implementing full system is not an easy task; it requires a best and flexible manufacturing process. But after implementing it is one of the key manufacturing principles that ensure supply of goods which doesn’t outstrip the demands. This principle has a best approach of waste detection and it is as an essential element of lean manufacturing [1].

5. Pursuit Perfection:
To achieve and pursuit a perfection into any process is one of the lean manufacturing principle which surprises the audience. After completion of above four principals this is the fifth principle which provides satisfaction after its completion. Because this 5 principles are always assures you to improve and facilitates you for further innovation. After implementing this 5 principles and achieving perfection into the production process manufacturing industries continually improve themselves and create greater value. At the end this all principle provides better productivity, profitability, higher efficiency from satisfaction of customers. These principle are not easily implemented but they have most powerful approach and servers different advantages at lower manufacturing cost [2].

Conclusion:
Lean Manufacturing is a powerful approach established by TPS in Japan by Taichi Ohno, the father of lean manufacturing, he introduced these principles to enhance production efficiency. By understanding customer value, mapping value streams, creating smooth flows, establishing a demand-driven pull process, and pursuing perfection, manufacturing industries. By implementing these principles manufactures can eliminate waste, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction. These principles are though challenging to implement, but they offer best possible advantages, by continuous improvement and enabling manufacturing processes for long-term success rapidly for evolving business environment.

References:

1. Gomez, Borja. “Principles of Lean Manufacturing to Simplify and Scale | Kaizen for everyone, 8 Mar. 2019, reverscore.com/principles-of-lean-manufacturing/https://reverscore.com/principles-of-lean-manufacturing/Accessed on 19 August, 2023.
2. Do, Doanh. “The Five Principles of Lean.” The Lean Way, https://theleanway.net/The-Five-Principles-of-Lean, 5 Aug. 2017, theleanway.net/The-Five-Principles-of-Lean.

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Mazharul Islam Kiron

Founder & Editor of Textile Learner. He is a Textile Consultant, Blogger & Entrepreneur. Mr. Kiron is working as a textile consultant in several local and international companies. He is also a contributor of Wikipedia.

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