Why go Lean?
Why should your organization apply Lean thinking?
World trade in manufactured goods is increasing. Does your organization compete effectively in international markets?
By using "Lean thinking", many firms have realized gains in productivity and profitability, including 60 to 70% gains in production lead time and process efficiency, and 50 to 60% gains in on-time delivery and inventory turnover.
Lean methodologies and Lean thinking help to create an environment of trust and accountability, while reducing waste and increasing productivity. Adopting Lean practices results in the ability to create high quality products at competitive prices.
Benefits of Lean
Lean practices can bring many benefits to your organization. To see if your company can benefit from going Lean, answer the following:
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Does your manufacturing operation face any of these challenges? | |
 Declining market share? |
Limited capacity? |
| High inventories |
Longer times to fill orders? |
| Increasing costs? |
Losing customers to competitors? |
| Labour shortages? |
Space issues? |
| Late shipments? |
Supply chain challenges? |
If you checked two or more of the above items, then it may benefit your organization to conduct a Lean analysis, and apply Lean principles to your manufacturing operations.
Lean manufacturing can have an immediate, positive impact on your company. Results will vary, but here are some typical areas where you will see savings and benefits:
- cross-trained employees
- faster market response
- higher labour efficiency and quality
- higher quality and reliability
- improved customer communication
- improved flexibility in reacting to changes
- improved vendor support and quality
- increased shipping and billing frequencies
- longer machine life
- lower inventories
- lower overall costs
- lower space/facility requirements
- reduced cycle time
- reduced inventory costs
- reduced lead time
- reduced obsolescence
- reduced scrap and waste
- self-directed work teams
- sharper strategic management focus
By implementing Lean practices, you can see measurable changes in your organization, both in the reduction of waste and the increase of productivity.
The following table summarizes some of the typical results our clients see after applying Lean practices to their manufacturing processes:
| Reduced | |
| manufacturing lead time | 50 to 90% |
| floor space requirements | 5 to 30% |
| work-in-process | 60 to 80% |
| Increased | |
| first-pass yields | 50 to 100% |
| throughput | 40 to 80% |
| productivity | 75 to 125% |
Date Updated: Jan 15, 2008
RDP-532