Lean manufacturing

Benefits of Lean Manufacturing
Lean manufacturing has gained such popularity for a reason—it works. More specifically, it works to reduce inventory overhead, reduce overtime, postpone capital investment, increase throughput, and reduce lead times by an average 99%. Lean manufacturing also results in improved customer service, higher quality, greater innovations, improved stock turns, and obvious boosts to productivity and value-add per person. This offers great financial benefits and supports companies in quickly scaling their operations. Lean strategies also boost agility and competitiveness.
The Benefits of Lean:

• 
  Improve Stock Turns
  
• 
  Improved Customer Service
  
• 
  Reduced Waste
  
• 
  Improved Employee Satisfaction
  
• 
  Improved Productivity
  
• 
  Improved Lead Times
  
• 
  Improved Quality
  
• 
  Innovation
  
• 
  Increased Profits
  

Lean Manufacturing Tools and Techniques
In order to achieve this wide range of benefits, there are tools and techniques for organizations to learn and effectively implement, as well as lean manufacturing software to enable these approaches. There are physical tools like those mentioned above such as red tags and shadow boards. There are also systems, tools, and techniques for lean manufacturing that are more philosophically-linked such as:
Just-In-Time or Just-In-Sequence
This method promotes manufacturing the right amount at the right time—exactly as much as the customer wants when they want it. This reduces inventory waste.
Gemba
This means the real, physical space of work where value happens, like the factory floor. Managers can regularly go on-site to get a close-up understanding of processes and their associated issues, referred to in lean manufacturing as a “Gemba walk.”
Value Stream Mapping
This is a hugely important tool to lean manufacturing, and it refers to a visual representation, like a flow chart, of every single thing in the business that adds value. Waste and inefficiencies become much clearer using this method.
Kaizen
This is the philosophy of continuous improvement that underpins lean manufacturing. Learn more about the benefits of Kaizen in manufacturing.
Bottlenecks
These are places where inefficiencies squeeze productivity to a much slower pace than other items that surround them in their value stream. Reducing inefficiencies here will have a substantial impact, because other aspects of the manufacturing business can already support growth after this process is no longer a limiting factor. It’s “the thing that’s holding you back.”
Kanban
This is a planning system that separates tasks into to-do, doing, and done so manufacturers can focus and manage what’s relevant at the right time. Inventory reduction is one of many benefits of a kanban system.
Continuous Flow
This means keeping production moving at all times with little to no waste or downtime. Continuous flow relies on a manufacturer's ability to examine, evaluate, and improve upon their products and processes.

Armed with these tools and an openness to operate under a new paradigm by making systemic, philosophical changes, manufacturers can create optimized facilities and processes that eliminate waste as well as supercharge their progress and growth potential through lean manufacturing.

Interested in how an Industrial IoT Platform purpose-built for manufacturers can help drive your continuous improvement initiatives? Get real-time visibility into shop floor performance, track your most important metrics, reduce downtime, and more, all with a plug-and-play solution.
Learn about the MachineMetrics Industrial IoT Platform or book a demo today.