Abstract
With the opening of world market, the Indian
manufacturers can not afford the luxury of
producing products not compatible with that of the
foreign products. The presence of globally
competitive firms and the continuous innovations
in the market has given a new impetus to the
competition and the quality standards. The Indian
manufacturing industries operating in the states
not having good infrastructure, are suffering on
account of high cost of production which is largely
attributed to high inventory level, high cycle time
and enormous wastage. It is high time that the
manufacturers should try some innovative and new
manufacturing strategies/techniques.
Lean manufacturing can be the answer for those
industries, which can make them competitive by
enabling them to cut down the cost of product by
reducing the waste as waste has been the bane of
manufacturing sector both inside and between the
companies. Major organizational changes are
required for implementing the lean manufacturing.
The effective implementation of lean
manufacturing strategy involves the use of Just-In-
Time (JIT) concepts, Supply Chain Management
(SCM), Cellular Manufacturing System (CMS), Six
Sigma quality control, Total Productive
Maintenance (TPM) and Kaizen along with some
newest techniques such as concurrent engineering
and rapid prototyping etc. This paper presents the
ways and means of implementing the lean
manufacturing concept for meeting the customer's
fast changing and focused requirements in today's
intensely competitive market.
INTRODUCTION
Since the early 1990s, the process of
economic liberalization and globalization has
completely changed the industrial scenario all
over the world. The Indian industries
particularly the manufacturing industries are
now have to survive the toughest challenge of
the global leaders in this field which includes
indomitable Japanese, Americans, Europeans,
and Koreans companies. The Indian
manufacturers have greatly suffered on account
of high inventory level, high delivery time and
large wastage till the end of the 1990s. The root
cause of all these problems lies in managing the
old batch production system poorly. With the
extensive use of fast changing and ever
improving technology in market, the
manufacturing industries can not afford to enjoy
the luxury they have before the pre-liberalization
era. The Indian manufacturers now have to learn
and master the art of producing high quality
products at low cost with short delivery time
with the aim of delighting the customers in an
open buyers market. Gone are the days when the
satisfaction of the customers happens to be the
sole aim of manufacturing. The flooding of
market with high level quality products by the
foreign firms have raised the competition to
such a great height where
only the companies with the innovative
ideas and high technical and managerial
competency will survive. The majority of Indian
manufacturing industries lack the competitive
skill required in this IT (Information
Technology) driven market. The reasonable
competitive edge can be gained by following the
time tested concepts of Lean Manufacturing.
Lean has been the buzzword of the late 1990s.
 Direct Man power Utilization 15% Increase
2. What is Lean Manufacturing?
Indirect Man power Utilization 55% Increase
The concept of lean manufacturing
originated from Japan. The term "lean Inventories 60% Decrease

manufacturing" owes its origin to an MIT study

Manufacturing cycle time 70% Decrease
of Japanese manufacturing techniques published
in the book "The Machine That Changed the Capacity 50% Increase
World ", by Dr .J.M. Womack, D. Daniel Jones
Delivery Time 40% Decrease
and Dr. Daniel Ross in early 1990s. The lean
manufacturing is based on US statistician W.E.
Deming's principles and it was originally named Lean manufacturing is the process of
the "'Toyota Production System". analyzing the flow of materials and information
The Toyota Production System (TPS) is in an environment and continuously improving
developed by Taiichi Ohno. In the late 1970s the the process to delight the customer. Lean
success of TPS has forced the American manufacturing applies the modern elements and
automobile manufacturing industries to adopt technologies of different areas: Process
this system in order to remain competitive in the Improvement, Operational Improvement, World
world market. The lTS industries have given Class Manufacturing, and Just-In- Time,
TPS a new name called lean manufacturing. Continuous Flow, Concurrent Engineering,
Lean manufacturing is an approach that quickly Continuous Improvement, Kaizen, and Supply
detects problems and inefficiencies. It eliminates Chain Integration.
waste by reducing costs in manufacturing
process. In operations within that process and in 3. Understanding Waste and Its Elimination
utilization of manpower associated with
production. The implementation of lean Waste has been the bane of manufacturing sector

manufacturing system in an organization that considerably affects the performance of an

transforms the existing system into a vibrant and organization. The much of the success achieved

agile one by identifying and eliminating waste, by the industries by virtue of lean manufacturing

thus increasing the productivity to a significant implementation is attributed to the control of

level. Today 100%of American Auto-industries waste. The industries based on customized mass

operate some form of this system. It is the only production system are reeling under the pressure

smart alternative to remain competitive in the of large amount of waste. The central theme of

market. The benefits of lean manufacturing the concepts of lean manufacturing is based on

implementation are shown in Table-l.
Table-l Lean Manufacturing Implementation
the systematic identification of waste and its
subsequent elimination .What is waste in an
organization? If it does not contribute in the
value of a product it is waste. The non-value
 added operations such as storage, transportation
Value 5 converting iron
and inspection in an organization contribute to adding ore into
activities Scooters
waste and thus are required to be eliminated. In
its most basic form, the lean concept eliminates Non-value 60 Transferring a
adding product from
waste through continuous process improvement. activities One size
Shigeo Shingo as a part of Toyota production container to
another
System (TPS) has identified the seven types of Necessary
non-value 35
waste or muda (referred to as Muda in Japanese). Inspecting every
adding product at the
These are: activities end of a process
Table-2 Seven Types of Waste as the Process
uses an
unreliable
Machine.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Over
Unnece Inappro Excessi Unnece
product Defects waiting
ssary priate ve ssary Further three more types of waste have been
ion
Invent Process Transp added to the seven original wastes. These are
Motion
ory ing ortation
called information waste. These are (i) Planning,
(ii) Scheduling, and (iii) Execution waste. In one
Category of of the European study conducted in Germany
People Process Information
waste
1. Processing 8. Strategic 16. Hand off twenty types of office waste has been found as
17. shown in Table-4. Lean manufacturing enables
2. Motion 9. Checking
Translation
3. Assignment 10. Work around 18. Missing to cut waste through proper planning and
Types of 19. efficient work processes by using the
4. Tempering 11. Boundary
waste Irrelevancy
5. Control 12. Mutation 20. Inaccuracy conventional industrial engineering techniques.
13. Sub-
6. Waiting
optimization
Goal
7. 14. Repeatability
alignment
15. Unbalanced
flow

Womack have identified three types of activity

in an organization .These are shown in Table-3: 4. Objectives of Lean Manufacturing

The five main objectives of a lean

Table-3 Types of Activities
manufacturing system are:
Types of % of Example 1. To produce the highest possible quality
activities total product,
time 2. at the lowest possible cost of manufacturing,
3. within the shortest possible delivery time,
 4. with the aim of just not satisfying the Strategic partnership with suppliers/customers.
customer but delighting the customer, Development of vendors
5. And ensuring a very good after sales service. JIT system.
Integrated Supply system.
5. Lean Manufacturing Concepts Kanban.
The lean manufacturing system is comprised of Free access to Database.
six main concepts. These are Smooth flow of materials and cash.
Horizontal and vertical information system.
(A) Waste Elimination
(E) Quality Improvement and its. Fact Based
Lean thinking
Operational flexibility Management.
Waste identification and their elimination Total Quality Management
Genba Kanri (management of the shop floor) Six Sigma concepts Process controls
Process Reengineering
Zero Defect Quality
(B) Continuous Improvement Poke yoke (Error proof)
system of managing the shop floor Standardization

Seiri- Sort (eliminate from workplace anything that does Lean Management Team
not belong it).
Seiton-Set in place (assign one logic place for each Jidoka
machine tool or material that belongs .in the area Product R & D
and have it always. in it’s place) Training and development of operators
Seiso -Shine (clean the area as never before) Continuous assessment of everyone in the
Seiketso- Standardize (establish new conditions as the organization
standard) Problem solving/decision making
Sitsuke- Sustain (sustain the effort so you do not lose what Independent maintenance team
you have achieved) Project teams/power teams
Small group activities
Kaizen
Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) 6. Lean Principles
Seven Quality Control Tools
Business Process Reengineering Clearly identify the areas which add and do not
Target Costing add value to the product from the
Value Analysis Customer’s point of view and not from the
perspective of individual firms, functions
and departments.
(C) Planning, Analysis and Process Mapping

Concurrent Engineering ▪Identify all the steps necessary to design, order

Modular Product Concepts and produce the product across the
Mass Customization whole value stream to highlight non-value
New Product development Based on Time to adding waste.
Market Concept
Time paced planning ▪Listing of those actions that create value flow
Value focused thinking without interruption, detours,
backflows waiting or scrap.

(D) Supply Chain Integration

▪Only make what is pulled by the customer.

▪Strive for perfection by continually removing
successive layers of waste, as they are
uncovered.
7. Pillars of Lean Manufacturing
The techniques such as JIT, Supply Chain
Integration, Cellular Manufacturing, Kaizen,
and Concurrent Engineering has played a leading
role in the implementation of lean
manufacturing. Because of their importance to
the lean philosophy these are popularly referred
to as pillars of lean manufacturing.
7.1 Just-In- Time
7.2 Supply Chain Integration
7.3 Cellular Manufacturing
7.4 Kaizen
7.5 Concurrent Engineering
mechanism by which a workstation signals the
need for more parts from the preceding station.
Kanban is a concept based on visual items like
tags, cards, banners, and boxes, trays etc. to ease
operations related to production control. Supplies
WIP and material handling in general.
Toyota started using total productive
maintenance since 1970s. Total Productive
Maintenance (TPM) is Total, because it is
business wide Productive, because it improves
equipment performance and Maintenance,
because it provides machine system support.
TPM is the philosophy and practice of
preventing the loss of productive time due to:
breakdowns, minor stoppages idling, operating at
less than planned for cycle times,
changeover/setups, and unacceptable quality.
7.2 Supply chain integration

7.1 Just-In- Time The success of lean manufacturing

system depends on developing and maintaining
JIT management obtains the goal of having a competitive
the good supplier base and strategic sourcing.
edge through the use of three simple management tools.
This system is effective only if it is executed all
Integrating and optimizing---Reducing the need
along the production chain, i.e. from the
for unnecessary functions and systems such as
supplier's supplier to the customer's customer.
inspection rework loops and inventory.

Improving Continuously---Developing internal 7.3 Cellular manufacturing

systems that encourage constant improvement in
processes and procedures.
Understanding the customer--- Meeting the
customer's need and reducing the customer's
overall cost of purchasing.
Toyota used JIT successfully by
- Establishing regular delivery deals with each
supplier in exchange of continual
Loyalty.
- Reduced inventories drastically by as much as
70%.
- Reduced material handling considerably.
The JIT umbrella contains the other
improvement techniques such as
Kanban, TPM, and Standardization of processes.
The word kanban means visual record. The
kanban or card as it is generally referred to be a
Cellular Manufacturing is a practical
application of group technology (GT) in which
functionally dissimilar machines are grouped
together to produce a family of parts. The use of
the cells for producing the parts enables to cut
down the setup time reduces inventories and
increases the through put rate. It eliminates the
non-value added activities from the shop floor to
a considerable extent.
7.4 Kaizen
Kaizen means improvement. When
applied to the work place Kaizen means
continuing improvement. Kaizen is a system for
communicating ideas up and down the company
hierarchy; everyone is encouraged to search and
exploit the new opportunities and institutional
barriers to the information flow are dismantled.
Kaizen charges management to prioritize
standardize and improve. Standardization and
measurement are the keys to kaizen.
7.5 Concurrent Engineering
There used to be little interaction while
designing a new product amongst the design
production and materials engineers. This
traditional work culture of the organization
creates and preserves the walls between these
departments in the company. Concurrent
Engineering (CE) is a product development
approach. Its objective is to reduce the
system/product development cycle time through
a better integration of activities and processes
across departments. The basic tenet of CE is the
integration of methodologies, processors, human
beings, tools, and methods to support product
development.
8. How to Implement Lean Manufacturing for
Competitive Advantages
The time has come when everyone is
expected to use innovative ideas so as to
compete with global players. If you can not
innovate you will perish in the race. Going lean
is an ever going continuous process. The results
can not be expected overnight. The philosophy
of lean manufacturing mainly rests on two
things.
1. The elimination of waste.
2. Continuous Improvement
The change in everyone’s attitude is necessary
for the effective implementation of lean
manufacturing in an organization.
- The India's leading auto giant Mahindra &
Mahindra is a shining example of the success of
lean manufacturing. The top management of
M&M decided to take strategic decision by
implementing lean manufacturing.
- Indian Aluminum Company has implemented
lean by rationalizing their operations and
giving major thrust to export business and
optimizing of internal working systems and
controls.
- Delphi manufacturing Systems Bangalore is a
low volume high variety production system
using lean manufacturing system. It is using
Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM),
Total Quality Management (TQM) and JIT.
Training and development of the
multifunctional work force with subsequent
provision of continuous evaluation is another
requirement for its effective implementation. The
use of cellular technology requires that the
operator should have the necessary skill for
managing all the machines of a particular cell.
Next important task before the management is to
ensure the Production of zero defect products
.Mistake proofing (Poka yoke) is the means
adopted for this purpose. Though the Statistical
Process Control (SPC) is used to check out the
defects whereas the Poka-yoke is required to
correct the defects. The use of six-sigma
concepts in some World’s top class industries
has yielded excellent results.
The concept of customer satisfaction is no longer
valid; delighting the customer is what companies
are looking for. The need is to strive for the
continuous improvement in order to remain
competitive Genba Kanri is one such technique,
which ensures better quality, low cost and fast
delivery. The principle in Genba is that
management must manage the five' M’s:
manpower, machines, materials, methods, and
measurements efficiently.
9. Barriers to Lean Manufacturing
Implementation
The barriers in the Indian context of
implementing the lean manufacturing are the
following:
- Lack of resources.
- Lack of expertise.
- Initial high cost which includes the cost of
resources as well as expertise.
- Poor supply chain structure.
- Ineffective training and development of work
force in the company.
- Absence of continuous assessment of every
individual in the organization.
- Psychological factors such as fear of loosing
the job on account of its implementation.
- Natural calamities.

10. Conclusion
Despite achieving the remarkable success in
Japan over the last three decades, one will find it
hard to comment on the worthiness of lean
manufacturing in today's highly competitive
market. It has still left with lot more potential to
maintain the necessary competitive edge. Despite
initial hurdles the companies have achieved
considerable success by implementing lean
manufacturing. The Indian companies will find it
hard to compete with the rival foreign firms in
case if they are averse to implement it and
continue to follow the old concepts based on
mass customized production. The need of the
modern market i.e. the development of top
quality products at lowest possible cost within
the shortest possible time can be made possible
by following the concepts of lean manufacturing.

References:
1. Journal on Lean manufacturing –Mohan sen
(August 2002)
2. www.af.ac.uk
3. www.mfgeng.com
4. http://web.mit.edu
5. www.implementation.com