Lean manufacturing (in Russia since 2004 adopted a translation of "lean", although previously encountered options "slim", "gentle", "prudent") - the concept of management, created at Toyota and is based on the continued effort to reduce cycle time by eliminating losses. Lean Production suggests involvement in the process of optimization of business of each employee and the most market-oriented system (production on request).

 

The objectives of lean manufacturing are:

• reduce labor costs by about half,
• reduction of production and warehouse space (also about 2 times)
• shortening product development
• guarantee delivery of products to the customer,
• maximum quality at minimum cost.

Lean manufacturing - it's U.S. title production system Toyota. The creator of lean manufacturing Tahiti It began the first experiments optimize production in the 1950's. In those postwar Japan lay in ruins and the country needed new cars. But the problem was that demand was not large enough to justify the purchase of a powerful production line, in the manner of Ford. You had a lot of different types of vehicles (cars, small-and medium-duty trucks, etc.), but the demand for a particular kind of machine was not large. The Japanese had to learn to work effectively, creating a lot of different models in conditions of low demand for each model. Such a task before them did not solve one, because the efficiency is understood solely in terms of mass production. Actually, this was born the term lean, which is a beer invented Krafchik John, an American consultant. After all, what else to call a system capable of efficiently producing many products at low unit costs? Lean, that is "lean."

The basic idea of lean production

The starting point of lean production - the value for the consumer. From the perspective of end-user product (service) becomes a real value only at a time when there is immediate treatment, making those items that consumers need. Heart of lean manufacturing is the process of waste elimination, which in Japanese are called strange for a Russian ear the word "muda". Muda - is one of the Japanese word that means the loss, waste, that is, any activity that consumes resources but creates no value. For example, consumers do not need to finished product or its components were in stock. Nevertheless, in the traditional system of company management storage costs and all costs associated with rework, marriage, passed on to consumers.
In accordance with the concept of lean manufacturing all the activities of the enterprise can be classified as follows: operations and processes that add value to the customer, and operations and processes does not add value to the customer. Consequently, all that does not add value to the consumer in terms of lean manufacturing, is classified as a loss and should be eliminated

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