Lean Manufacturing Practices

The goal of lean manufacturing is to minimize waste–even eliminating it if possible–and maximize productivity. Regardless of how small a manufacturing company might be, everyone can value from those two overarching goals. The philosophy itself outlines several practical ways to achieve those goals, from standardizing various parts of the process on the shop floor to creating effective strategies and clear priorities for the shop’s future endeavors, to managing the production of waste and the need for inventory. What this does is identify areas in the shop of resource waste, whether that comes in the form of time, transportation, movement, inventory, product defects, labor, or materials. With this identification, the shop can then aim its efforts towards streamlining these areas and improving them. 

The ‘Pregame Huddle’

One aspect of Lean manufacturing that many small-to-medium production shops have adopted is a type of pregame huddle each morning or at the beginning of each week. These brief meetings allow managers and leaders to provide the team with a plan of action, or any set goals throughout the week, keep them apprised of any potential challenges, and take suggestions or feedback from the team.

The 5S System – Putting Lean Manufacturing to Work

One of the many different principles in Lean manufacturing is the 5S Methodology. In this system, everything in the workspace is organized in a way that reduces the waste of unnecessary motion and downtime, while creating an overall safer work environment.

The practice itself is simple.

• Sort: This refers to the initial set up of the shop–ensuring that the items in a workspace are actually needed and removing those items that aren’t.
• Straighten: Once everything has been sorted and the unnecessary items removed, what remains is organized in a way that makes everything accessible without restricting movement.
• Shine: Regularly cleaning and organizing a workspace, as well as inspecting tools, equipment, and other items for damage, is important for productivity.
• Standardize: Tying in with ‘Shine’, standardizing means just that–standardizing the process of organizing and cleaning into a repeatable and reproducible process.
• Sustain: This final step ensures that the shop applies the other steps on a regularly basis, while ensuring further progress on improving the efficiency in other areas of the shop.

Cellular Manufacturing

Cellular manufacturing is a subset of the lean manufacturing practices that combines the processes of a production line into a single, unified manufacturing cell. Typically, this type of manufacturing is used in shops that handle small to medium sized production volumes. Each ‘cell’ is typically organized around a family of parts–metal components with similar enough features that adjusting the equipment between each project will take little to no time. However, this is just one layout–there are several other ways that manufacturers have implemented a cellular design into their shops.