Lean Manufacturing

Purpose – The advent of recession at the beginning of twenty-first century forced many organizations worldwide to reduce cost and to be more responsive to customer demands. Lean Manufacturing (LM) has been widely perceived by industry as an answer to these requirements because LM reduces waste without additional requirements of resources. This led to a spurt in LM research across the globe mostly through empirical and exploratory studies which resulted in a plethora of LM definitions with divergent scopes, objectives, performance indicators, tools/techniques/methodologies, and concepts/elements. The purpose of this paper is to review LM literature and report these divergent definitions, scopes, objectives, and tools/techniques/methodologies. Design/methodology/approach – This paper highlights various definitions by various researchers and practitioners. A total of 209 research papers have been reviewed for the research contribution, research methodology adopted, tools/techniques/methodologies used, type of industry, author profile, country of research, and year of publication. Findings – There are plethora of LM definitions with divergent objectives and scope. Theory verification through empirical and exploratory studies has been the focus of research in LM. Automotive industry has been the focus of LM research but LM has also been adopted by other types of industries also. One of the critical implementation factors of LM is simultaneous adoption of leanness in supply chain. LM has become an integrated system composed of highly integrated elements and a wide variety of management practices. There is lack of standard LM implementation process/framework. Originality/value – The paper reviews 209 research papers for their research contribution, research methodology, author profile, type of industry, and tools/techniques/methodology used. Various characteristics of LM definitions are also reviewed.

Purpose: Lean Manufacturing is widely regarded as a potential methodology to improve productivity and decrease costs in manufacturing organisations. The success of lean manufacturing demands consistent and conscious efforts from the organisation, and has to overcome several hindrances. Industry 4.0 makes a factory smart by applying advanced information and communication systems and future-oriented technologies. This paper analyses the incompletely perceived link between Industry 4.0 and lean manufacturing, and investigates whether Industry 4.0 is capable of implementing lean. Executing Industry 4.0 is a cost-intensive operation, and is met with reluctance from several manufacturers. This research also provides an important insight into manufacturers’ dilemma as to whether they can commit into Industry 4.0, considering the investment required and unperceived benefits. Design/methodology/approach: Lean manufacturing is first defined and different dimensions of lean are presented. Then Industry 4.0 is defined followed by representing its current status in Germany. The barriers for implementation of lean are analysed from the perspective of integration of resources. Literatures associated with Industry 4.0 are studied and suitable solution principles are identified to solve the abovementioned barriers of implementing lean. Findings: It is identified that researches and publications in the field of Industry 4.0 held answers to overcome the barriers of implementation of lean manufacturing. These potential solution principles prove the hypothesis that Industry 4.0 is indeed capable of implementing lean. It uncovers the fact that committing into Industry 4.0 makes a factory lean besides being smart. Originality/value: Individual researches have been done in various technologies allied with Industry 4.0, but the potential to execute lean manufacturing was not completely perceived. This paper bridges the gap between these two realms, and identifies exactly which aspects of Industry 4.0 contribute towards respective dimensions of lean manufacturing.

For the past few years almost every manufacturing industry has been trying to get 'lean'. A headlong rush to become lean also resulted in many misapplications of existing lean manufacturing tools often due to inadequate understanding of the purpose of tools. While tool descriptions abound, there is no way systematically to link a manufacturing organization to its problems and to the possible tools to eliminate these problems. The main purpose of this paper is to propose a classification scheme to serve as a link between manufacturing waste problems and lean manufacturing tools. A manufacturing organization can then match its manufacturing wastes with the appropriate lean manufacturing tools. The classification of existing knowledge is often the first step in moving from a practice to a science. This classification scheme systematically organizes lean manufacturing tools and metrics according to their level of abstraction, appropriate location of application of the tool in the organization, whether it addresses management waste or activity waste, the type of resource waste it addresses, and whether it identifies waste, measures waste, eliminates waste, or a combination of the three. We have organized 101 lean manufacturing tools and metrics using this classification scheme. We have also described some common manufacturing problems using this classification scheme and shown the problem-tool connection through examples. The classification scheme is not intended as a decision-making tool, i.e. it does not decide if something is a waste. However, the proposed scheme does an excellent job of classifying all well-known lean manufacturing tools and metrics and suggests lean manufacturing tools and metrics that will help to address manufacturing problems. This classification scheme will assist companies trying to become lean and can serve as a foundation for research into the science of lean.

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to investigate the role of management support in a lean implementation. The impact the lean implementation made on communication within the organization is also examined.Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative methods were used to study the relationships between management support, organizational communications, and a lean manufacturing implementation. A case study was conducted in an electronics manufacturing company in the northwestern USA. Data were collected over a three‐month time period. The data were coded using an evolving coding scheme and analysis was performed on the resulting data set.Findings – Evidence was found to support the supposition that management support does play a role in driving a lean manufacturing implementation. Management support impacted the lean manufacturing implementation both negatively and positively. The research also found moderate support for improved communication in the organization attributable to the lean implementation....

In the last 30 years, many U.S. firms have adopted lean manufacturing strategies. Despite evidence of variation in firms' success with lean strategies, few studies have examined firms' management accounting systems (MAS) as a potential source of the variation. This study uses structural equation modeling to examine whether one MAS component - the use of non-financial manufacturing performance (NFMP) measures - mediates the relationship between lean manufacturing and financial performance. Consistent with the view that firms' MAS must fit their operational strategies, the results indicate that lean strategies' financial performance effects are indeed mediated through the utilization of NFMP measures. The study also reports confirming results from regression-based tests examining the mediating role of the use of NFMP measures in the lean manufacturing/financial performance relationship.

DESCRIPTION OF LEAN MANUFACTURING Lean Manufacturing-A "Holistic" View Lean Manufacturing Approach THE FIVE PRIMARY ELEMENTS Organization Elements Metrics Element Logistics Element Manufacturing Flow Element Processing Control Element Sustaining the Change PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER Setting the Stage How it Begins The Game Plan Lean Assessment Current State Gap Future State Design Deployment The Results CASE STUDIES OF LEAN MANUFACTURING PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS Operations Redesign Program Kaizen Event Based Lean Program High Volume Focused Factory Project Kaizen Event Based Focused Factory Pilot Assembly Production Unit Project High Volume and Low Volume Cell Project

In recent years, Industry 4.0 has emerged as one of the most discussed concepts and has gained significant popularity in both academia and the industrial sector. Both Industry 4.0 and lean manufacturing utilise decentralised control and aim to increase productivity and flexibility. However, there have been few studies investigating the link between these two domains. This article explores this novel area and maps the current literature. This is achieved through a systematic literature review methodology, investigating literature published up to and including August 2017. This article identifies four main research streams concerning the link between Industry 4.0 and lean manufacturing, and a research agenda for future studies is proposed.

Simulation is used to assist in the decision to implement lean manufacturing principles at an existing assembly operation. Models are developed for the existing assembly system, as well as for a new system (of similar capacity), that employ these principles. In addition to the manufacturing processes, the associated warehousing, inventory management, transportation, and production control/scheduling systems are included in the model to enable the quantification of lean manufacturing's impact on the total system. Simulation experiments measure each system's resource requirements and performance, thereby quantifying benefits to be derived from applying the shop-floor principles of lean manufacturing.

Chapter 1. What Is the Perspective of This Book Chapter 2. Lean Manufacturing and the Toyota Production System Chapter 3. Inventory and Variation Chapter 4. Lean Manufacturing Simplified Chapter 5. The Significance of Lead Time Chapter 6. How to Do Lean--Cultural Change Fundamentals Chapter 7. How to Do Lean--The Four Strategies to Becoming Lean Chapter 8. How to Implement Lean--The Prescription for the Lean Project Chapter 9. Planning and Goals Chapter 10. Sustaining the Gains Chapter 11. Cultures Chapter 12. Constraint Management Chapter 13. Cellular Manufacturing Chapter 14. The Story of the Alpha Line Chapter 15. The Story of the Bravo Line: A Tale of Reduced Lead Times and Lots of Early Gains Chapter 16. Using the Prescription--Three Case Studies Chapter 17. The Precursors to Lean Not Handled Well Chapter 18. An Experiment in Variation, Dependent Events, and Inventory Chapter 19. Assessment Tools Chapter 20. A House of Lean Glossary Bibliography Index

By means of a case study, discusses the most important elements of lean manufacturing (LM), the strategies used by the company for implementing LM, and the significant benefits that were accrued in manufacturing operations. Explains the critical factors involved in the implementation of LM utilizing a business process change framework. The data for this study were obtained through interviews, questionnaire survey and archival sources.