LEAN is a term used in the U.S. for what was originally known as the “Toyota Production System”. Lean was developed by Toyota to improve the performance of their manufacturing environment. It is also referred to as lean production, lean thinking, lean enterprise, etc.
The Lean thinking processis is realtively straight-forward and uncomplicated. Basically, it takes a system (or process) approach to waste elimination and begins with selecting a Key Process. That process is then mapped mapped as it operates today. The Lean team then begins to identify sources of waste in that process by using various quality tools designed to measure and collect data. Since most key processes are composed of several sub-process, sources of waste are generally associated with a particualr sub-process rather than the whole key process. The wasteful subprocess is re-engineered and the changes are documented.
Finally once the process change has been tested and there is a good probably the process doess ndeed eliminate waste, Customer Pull is established. In Lean thinking a process is not initiated until there is a customer demand for the product of the process. By implimenting a customer pull type of system, no energy is expended, nothing is produced before it is required thus eliminated huge inventories of unused product and avoiding the spending of money before it is time…. all sources of company resource waste. The pull system also has the advantage of allowing a company to make rapid process changes to meet changing market demands without loosing substantial sunk costs.
Continually re-implementing the Lean process results in what is refered to Continuous Process Improvement or CPI.
