{"id":15077,"date":"2020-06-11T12:04:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T11:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theleansixsigmacompany.com\/uk\/?p=15077"},"modified":"2025-09-22T12:11:36","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T11:11:36","slug":"lean-manufacturing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theleansixsigmacompany.com\/uk\/library\/lean-manufacturing\/","title":{"rendered":"Lean Manufacturing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is Lean Manufacturing?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lean Manufacturing is a management philosophy aimed at generating the maximum amount of value for the customer with the least amount of waste. Waste is anything that doesn\u2019t add value to the product in the eyes of the customer, or doesn\u2019t add value to the business as a whole. A good example of this is the administration. That\u2019s very important for the company, but doesn\u2019t add any value for the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where does Lean Manufacturing come from?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lean Manufacturing used to be known as the Toyota Production System. The continuous improvement whilst striving for the so called one-piece-flow is how Toyota differentiated itself from its large competitors in the United States. This approach toward increasing speed and flexibility in the Toyota production lines resulted in improvement techniques like SMED, Kanban, Poka Yoke, the Andon cord, Ishikawa, Kaizen, 5S<\/a> Lean Management, Value Stream Mapping and many others. Many companies use these tools to this day in order to improve their own processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lean Manufacturing as a philosophy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Toyota Production System is a strategic weapon for Toyota. A company culture that makes sure every single employee views their own processes through the eyes of the customer. Where are we wasting time, resources or materials for which the customer is unwilling to pay? How can me remove these wastes from the process? Here, Lean Manufacturing is seen as a mindset, a philosophy. It consists of a set of principles that guide everything that is done within the company. The company is successful because Toyota\u2019s management is committed to investing in their employees and stimulating the culture of continuous improvement all the time. Lean Manufacturing as a philosophy can only be successful in this way, when it is backed by the entire company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 5 principles of Womack<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

James P. Womack marveled whilst researching the fact that Toyota was producing cars at double the speed of Ford. On top of that, Toyota had half the stock Ford had and delivered more quality. To study the Toyota Production System, Womack left for Japan in the late 80s. He wrote two books when he came back: \u2018\u2019The Machine That Changed The World (1990)\u2019\u2019 and \u2018\u2019Lean Thinking (1996)\u2019\u2019. In his book Lean Thinking he describes the Toyota Production System with 5 principle:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Specify value<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Identify the value stream<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Create flow<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Let the customer pull value<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Pursuit of perfection<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    These five principles will be explained in detail below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Specify value<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    For every organization (and every process) it is important to add value. Without added value, a process or organization doesn\u2019t have the right to exist. This sounds simple, but is often quite hard to define in practice. The customer ultimately decides whether something adds value or not. When looking at a process, you can categorize the activities into three different categories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    1. Customer Value Added (CVA)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. Business Value Added (BVA)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    3. Waste<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      An activity within a process is CVA when it answers one of the questions below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n