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Lean Production Overview

There are five basic guiding principles for introducing lean production or reducing muda: -

1. Specifying value: Value should be defined only by the customer and should be expressed in terms of specific product, which meets the specific needs at a specified price at a specified time. Specifying value correctly is the main source of reducing muda. The final step
in identifying value and actually the most important one is Target Cost. The task is to identify and determine a target cost based on the amount of resources and effort required to make a product if all muda is removed from the process.

2. Identifying the value stream: Value stream is the set of all tasks required to bring a specific product through three main tasks: problem solving task, information management task and physical transformation task. There are three types of actions occurring in the value stream of any product: -
(1) Creating value
(2) Which create no value but are unavoidable
(3) Which create no value and immediately avoidable

3. Creating flow: The aim is to create flow in low volume production, by learning to change quickly from one set of tools to another for different products. This was done by right sizing machines and changing equipment layout, using kanban.

4. Creating pull: It means to make products only when the next step in the production sequence requires it, i.e., let the customer pull the product from you rather than making products and asking the customer to purchase them. This helps to reduce inventory levels.

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* Contributed by -
Aditya Aggarwal & Lalit Kumar Agarwalla,
NITIE, Mumbai.