Lean Production
Lean production – often also referred to as lean manufacturing – aims to eliminate all waste in production.
Put simply, according to the lean mindset, all steps in the process that do not offer added value for the customer are considered waste. The aim is therefore to reduce activities and resources that do not create added value for the customer.
Waste can occur in many different forms:
- Defective products and rejects
- Overproduction
- Superfluous transportation
- Waiting times
- Too much material in the warehouse
- Unnecessary movement of employees
- Unused knowledge of employees
- Processes executed twice
Lean production can help achieve greater efficiency. To eliminate waste in production, companies can apply specific lean management methods. This leads to greater resource efficiency and sustainability in production.
Origin and meaning
The lean concept became popular in the 1990s. However, the origin of the basic idea of lean emerged as early as the 1950s at Toyota in Japan. Lean production or lean manufacturing can be assigned to the superordinate term “lean management”.
Lean Production—which translates to “schlanke Produktion” in German—means taking care not to waste resources such as labor or materials during production. The goal is to increase production efficiency by both reducing costs and boosting productivity.
Benefits of Lean Production
Leaner production ensures greater resource efficiency and has a number of advantages:
- Lower costs due to lower material and energy consumption.
- Competitive advantage through cost savings thanks to lean production.
- Improving production.
- Reducing the company’s environmental impact and improving its sustainability.
Implementation and lean management methods
There are a variety of methods in lean management for eliminating waste and implementing lean production. Examples of methods that can help to achieve leaner production are: 5S method, Just-In-Time, Kaizen, Jidoka and standardization of work processes.
More Useful Information
Lean Production: Mit diesen Methoden erreichen Sie eine ressourceneffiziente Produktion!
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