Lean Manufacturing Tools and Techniques – With companies and

manufacturing units getting upgraded to newer and more efficient

practices, it becomes evident that there’s a great need for manufacturing
tools and techniques to improve this situation. Manufacturing is gaining
momentum as the world market is progressing through each day. With
newer businesses making the cut and the demand within global markets
on the increase, it is but necessary for businesses to put their best foot
forward and meet the ever-increasing needs and demands.

A rise in demand would require production or manufacturing to be

increased. This would mean to keep the same high level of quality, with
reduced wastage, and shorter time period, without cost inflation. In order
to keep a strong control on all of these factors and elements, it’s
necessary to know about concepts and approaches that are used all
around world, to get production/manufacturing up and running in the most
efficient manner. And, this is exactly what we’re going to have a look
through in this article, taking into account one of the most sought-after
systems in the project management paradigm—Lean Manufacturing.

Note: Become a Project Manager

Learn how to manage projects using proven project-management
techniques. Develop communication skills as well as team work skills.
Manage project risks and issues.
What is Lean Manufacturing?
Often referred to as just “Lean”, Lean Manufacturing essentially is a
method that is used in the elimination of waste (or, Muda) along the value
stream of a particular manufacturing workflow. A peculiar feature in Lean
Manufacturing is the fact that it takes into account the overburdening on
resources and also the unevenness of the workload through the value
stream. Lean Manufacturing aims at bringing in an even distribution of
 work, or compensating the time for work, and ensuring that production
doesn’t waste any of the main business factors of: quality, time, cost, and
resources.

Lean Manufacturing focuses on the value stream and makes sure that
each value adding component or process is brought to the fore-front and
those that don’t add any sort of value to the flow of work are eliminated
from the workflow; hence, the term “Lean”.

Devised by Toyota Production System, Lean Manufacturing aims at

enhancing the overall customer experience and focuses on reduction or
complete elimination of the 7 types of wastes. These wastes are as
follows: (TIMWOOD)

 Transport
 Inventory
 Motion
 Waiting
 Overproduction
 Over-processing
 Defects

6 Lean Manufacturing Tools and Techniques

Now, since you’re updated with the best way to enhance your
manufacturing and production process, it becomes essential for you to
know the different tools and techniques used within Lean Manufacturing
and know how to use them and where. So, let’s dive into the 6 most-used
and basic, yet effective, tools and techniques you need to know.
1. 5S
Within the paradigm of Lean Manufacturing, 5S is a simple, yet powerful,
Japanese tool that is used for the purpose of organizing a workplace in a
very systematic, clean, and safe manner. This organizing enhances your
productivity, work standardization efforts, and helps in visual
management.

5S ensures that a manufacturing or production unit experiences

standardization throughout its workflow, at all levels of the process. With
standard operational practices in tow, it becomes easier for work to
proceed in an efficient, safe, and repeatable manner. This way iterations
can take place at higher speed, thus, promoting higher levels of
production.

For an organization implementing 5S, this tool becomes the foundation

stone for all the other Lean Manufacturing tools to be used and organized
effectively. The 5S tool works methodically in 5 phases. These 5 phases
are termed in Japanese and are transliterated in English to form 5 “S”
terms. They are as follows:

 5S Seiri – or, Sort , is the first step of the 5S and involves sorting of the all
the mess and clutter within the workplace while keeping only the
important and extremely useful items within the work area.
 5S Seiton – or, Straighten , is the next step that dictates the process of
arranging the decluttered items in an efficient manner so as to be used
using the principles of ergonomics. This step ensures that every single
item has its place and those items go back to their place.
 5S Seiso – or, Sweep , is the step that involves a thorough cleaning of the
work area, the tools to be used, all the systems, machines and
 equipment to be used in the manufacturing unit of the company. This will
ensure that all the apparatus used during production and assembly are
as good as new to eliminate any non-conformity that may arise due to
technical difficulties.
 5S Seiketsu – or, Standardize , ensures that whatever work was conducted
in the first 3 steps are now standardized accordingly. This builds in the
common standards and how we need to work among the team.
Standardization is a key component within Lean Manufacturing, thus, this
becomes a crucial phase.
 5S Shitsuke – or, Sustain , is the final stage that ensures that the company
keeps up to the standards adhered and conformed to. This stage
involves housekeeping and auditing of the processes and tools and
equipment. It is during this stage that the work routine becomes a
culture.

2. Cellular Manufacturing
The concept of cellular manufacturing increases the different mix of
products onto a single manufacturing unit, while dealing with minimum
waste. Going to the basics of this technique, we need to understand what
a cell is. A cell can consists of work areas / work stations and equipment
arranged in a suitable manner so as to facilitate smooth operation of the
workflow. This would mean the smooth processing of the materials and
elements through a process. This cell even boasts of trained operators
who are qualified to work within it.

Cellular manufacturing very well depends on the arrangement of all the

components within a work area in production and can lead to great
advantages when implemented correctly. A principle within cellular
manufacturing is that of one-piece flow. This concept ensures that the
product moves through the production process in one single unit at a
 time without any vague or sudden interruptions. Even the pace set to the
process would be the one defined and slated by the customer’s needs
and demand rate.

Cellular manufacturing addresses the issue of catering to the multiple

product lines required by customers. This technique groups similar
products together so as to process them in the same sequence and on
the same equipment. This reduces the time that would be lost in the
changeover between the different products and offers the production line
with smaller, containable units of products. Cellular manufacturing also
ensures that space is effectively utilized at all instances of production.
Apart from these, cellular manufacturing also contributes to reducing the
lead time and improving productivity of the production line. With a lot of
clarity, this technique, within Lean Manufacturing, also enhances
flexibility and transparency between different product lines and
enhances teamwork and communication between various departments.

3. Continuous Improvement
Staying true to its name, Continuous Improvement is a methodology
within Lean Manufacturing that advocates the following of formal
practices or an informal set of rules and guidelines. More than a
methodology, the attitude of constantly wanting to improve is what is
influenced through this tool. Continuous Improvement, often known as
Rapid Improvement, helps streamline all the workflows that are deployed
within the production environment. This promotes efficient workflows, and
efficient workflows help in saving time, cost, and resources. Thus, this
fulfills the main concept behind Lean Manufacturing. Each task is
undertaken with a view to continuously improve with time and each
 resource working towards improvement of services, products, or
processes are properly trained and fine-tuned for use.

Continuous Improvement follows the proceeding quality cycle, called the

Deming Cycle, or PDCA cycle, which comprises of 4 phases that the
product or process needs to go through. They are as follows:

 Plan – In this phase an opportunity for change is identified and the

planning is carried out to bring about this change within the system.
 Do – Once the planning is completed and verified, the plan is then
executed for the change to be implemented within the system.
 Check – In this stage, data is collected and viewed to check the success
of the change, which was implemented. The results are analyzed with a
view to determine whether the change brought about was successful.
 Act – Once the change is determined to be successful, the plan is
implemented on a much wider scale and continuous assessment takes
place. Again, the check stage is followed after large-scale
implementation.

4. Jidoka
In Japanese, the coined-in term “Jidoka” can be defines as “automation
with human intervention”. This term gained importance during the 19th
century when the automatic, self-powered loom was put into action by
Sakichi Toyoda, founder of the Toyota groups of companies. This
automatic loom would stop if it detected a break in the thread during the
process of looming. The operator handling the loom would then intervene
and fix the thread before resuming the function.

This would mean that each time a breakage was detected, the production
process would temporarily halt, till it’s fixed. This way no defective
 product was even produced, ensuring 100% quality to customers. Also, it
took only a single operator to handle this entire operation which was
essentially cost-effective—improvement in productivity of the process. In
short the process put into effective all the principles and philosophies of
Lean Manufacturing and the process looks something like this:

System detects abnormality and communicates this to the main system

↳ Detection of deviation from the normal workflow

↳ Production halts

↳ Operator/supervisor/manager checks for the issue and resolves the

problem

↳ All changes made are incorporated to reflect in the standard workflow

This way you can feed in all the defects and abnormalities and when a
workflow deviates from this standardized flow, the system can
immediately let you know into order to rectify and feed the next anomaly
in.

5. Total Productive Maintenance

Machine downtime is a serious concern on a production line and can
cause detrimental issues if the problem isn’t resolved on time. Reliability
on the machines and equipment on the manufacturing line is one concern
that is addressed within Lean Manufacturing, with the help of the tool,
Total Productive Maintenance. Setting up a Total Productive
 Maintenance program becomes a necessity in a Lean Manufacturing
environment.

The Total Productive Maintenance program is essentially made up of 3

components, which boost the working of the production/manufacturing
line. They are as follows:

 Preventive Maintenance – These are regularly planned and executed

maintenance activities and not mere random checks conducted by the
workers. Here, the crew is expected to perform periodic and complete
equipment maintenance for all the machines to check for any anomalies
in the functioning. This will ensure that sudden breakdowns do not occur
and the throughput for each equipment is increased.
 Corrective Maintenance – This kind of maintenance revolves around making
the decision of whether there is a need for fixing or purchasing new
equipment altogether. It makes sense for some machines that are
experiencing frequent breakdowns to be examined and completely
replaced for further loss of money and resource or even quality.
 Maintenance Prevention – This component ensures that the machines
purchased are the right ones. A machine that is hard to maintain will only
cause more trouble and loss of investment for the organization. Workers
will find it difficult to continuously maintain it, resulting in serious loss.

6. Total Quality Management

An important Lean Manufacturing technique, Total Quality
Management is a continuous quality program aimed at bringing about
teamwork among departments, to come together and ensure a self-reliant
workflow, outputting optimum quality of products. TQM deals with
participative management and focuses on the customer needs and
demands, accordingly aligning the process of production and timelines.
 Total Quality Management looks at the following key components as part
of its technique definition:

 Employee involvement and training

 Problem-solving teams
 Statistical methods
 Process and not people
 Focus on long-term goals
 Quality being defined by the needs of the customers
 Direct involvement of the top management being essential to bring about
change and increase in steps taken towards quality
 Quality increment being a continuous effort and one that needs to be
continued as a long-term plan
 Improvement in work process and the maintenance of the production line
 Systematic analysis after requirement gathering is essential
 Requirement gathering should take place with each department involved
and all the employees within those department

Summary
Each of these tools and techniques offer a complete and wholesome
Lean Manufacturing system of their own. While 5S and Continuous
Improvement along with other tools, such as Kaizen, promote the
foundation of Lean Manufacturing, Jidoka and tools such as JIT (Just-In-
Time) prove to be the pillars of Lean Manufacturing, providing the
necessary support to the qualitative structure that it promotes.

Cellular Manufacturing comes across as a solid methodology within the

Lean Manufacturing world and offers to be a great tool for the production
line to reduce on time and cost, and utilize resources and space
effectively. Lastly, TQM ensures that quality is never neglected while
increasing the throughput of machines and processes alike.

Lean Manufacturing is an important way of management within the

production/manufacturing world whose concepts have slowly and steadily
entered into the world of business and has proved to be beneficial in all
strata of these businesses. Using Lean Manufacturing is all about
understanding the concepts behind these tools and techniques. Once
you’re familiar with these concepts, implementation can be based on your
work culture and production style, as Lean Manufacturing has managed
to strike success in all different sectors and forms of businesses.

History of ERP and MRP systems

MRP was developed in the 1970s as a mechanism for manufacturing companies to calculate more

precisely what materials they required, at what time and in what optimum quantities. With the growth

of the manufacturing businesses and the complexity of the operations, businesses needed better

solution that will help them handle the manufacturing operations.

In 1980s, material requirements planning (MRP) evolved into manufacturing resource planning

(MRP II) because manufacturers realized the need for the system to reach broader aspects within

the company, such as: invoicing, payroll, detailed capacity planning, scheduling and shop floor

control.

In 1990s, Gartner coined the term ERP and described it as a newer suite of software that would

encapsulate all the processes contained within MRP II software while also integrating applications

for other operations such as Financial Management, HR & Payroll management, Customer

Relationship Management and other. That is how the ERP system was born. So we are right to say

that MRP evolved into ERP.

It’s important to note that ERP didn’t replace MRP. The biggest difference between ERP and

MRP systems today is that you can buy MRP system as a standalone application. This is common

practice among smaller manufacturers that cannot justify a fully integrated ERP system.
What is MRP software?
As mentioned before, MRP (Material Requirement Planning) is software solution that helps

manufacturing companies calculate more precisely what materials they require, at what time and in

what optimum quantities. MRP II is a more recent version of MRP and includes detailed capacity

planning, scheduling, shop floor control and other calculations. MRP II gives companies the ability to

compare forecasts with actual data and analyze performance and improve processes to achieve

better efficiency.
What is ERP software?
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a category of business-management software – typically a

suite of integrated applications—that an organization can use to collect, store, manage and interpret

data from various departments of the organization. ERP solution integrates the key areas of the

business like purchases, sales, manufacturing, human resources, services, inventory, etc., and

improves the business processes and flow of information across the organization.

When ERP software is implemented in the organization, all the departments can access updated

and shared information. In addition to this, the entity is also able to analyze the profitability,

performance, and liquidity at any point in time.

Key Differences Between ERP and MRP

ERP does it all. MRP is more specific
ERP is a full-business software. It automates and integrates all the systems across an organization

that make core business processes run smoothly. It covers all aspects of customer relationship

management (CRM) from ordering through payments, including the financial side of the business

that the customer never sees. It’s responsible for scheduling operations, keeping inventory records

and financial data. In addition, ERPs also assist in defining business processes and ensuring they
are complied with throughout the supply chain.

MRP is more specific software. With MRP, you don’t have access to financial functions or CRM

functions. You do, however, have more control over the manufacturing process without having to

attempt the kind of full-scale integration that’s required with ERP programs and applications.

ERP includes MRP module

MRP may be a single module of ERP. Most ERP applications have built in MRP capabilities that

include materials management, shop floor management, bills of materials, quoting, and work orders.

The question is, does your organization need all these capabilities? In some cases, the answer is

no. And that is why some companies choose MRP rather than ERP.

Which system is right for your business?

Just like with everything in life, there are advantages and disadvantages to each. Each organization

has unique struggles to overcome and goals to achieve with software. Consider what those

struggles and goals are to help you determine what type of buyer you are. Here is a short list of key

advantages and disadvantages of ERP and MRP systems:

Generally speaking, more niche manufacturers will need a more advanced MRP system or tailored

ERP solution to supplement their existing software, whereas smaller manufacturers can often be
served by either a lighter MRP system or an ERP system that can handle their manufacturing needs.