Manufacturers must adopt lean-

production to achieve higher

efficiency, competencies
LAHORE: Lean-production can help manufacturers and service providers attain higher efficiency, save
time, and money to stay ahead of competitors. The hold of US on global auto sector was broken through
lean production system by the Japanese in 1960s.
Lean-production system was also called the Toyota production system. Its tools were Kaizen workshops
where frontline workers solved difficult problems; then came kanban that was the scheduling system for
just in time production, and finally andon cord which if pulled by a worker stopped the entire production
line.
Lean in fact is now recognised as the best management disciplines that extract workers full potential to
efficiently deliver goods and services according to the requirements of the customer.
Dynamic companies now think about lean operations from assembly plants to services, ranging from
retailing, hospitality to healthcare. When we look generally at the level of efficiencies of the companies
in Pakistan, the full potential of lean potential has not yet been realised.
This perhaps is one of the major reasons of our low ranking in competitiveness. It is not necessary to
attain lean-production through technology only; good management practices can also save companies a
fortune.
Take the example of airlines. They buy aircrafts worth millions of dollars, but barring few, many
companies do not operate them to their actual potential. They waste precious time in boarding and
disembarking passengers that efficient companies avoid.
Airbus-320 is a single aisle medium range liner. The standard time for unloading and uploading
passengers in these aircrafts is 52.18 minutes while the best time achieved by most efficient companies
is only 33.11 minutes which is a net saving of 19.07 minutes.
Now if an airline operates fights between Karachi and Lahore, the efficient one can make five roundtrips
with a stopover of 40 minutes (taking into consideration some delays), while the one operating on
standard mode will make 4 roundtrips.
The efficient one will operate with an advantage of 20 percent over standard airline. A plane makes a
roundtrip from Karachi to Lahore and back in 210 minutes. The difference between the two is that the
efficient has cumulative boarding-unloading time of 80 minutes, while standard consumes 120 minutes.
It is worth noting that the airline with best practices saves time at every stage of operation connected
with boarding and disembarking. It saves 1.36 minutes on disembarking of passengers simply by a stricter
control on carryon bags, which means very few passengers moving back on aisle to find the bag.
By keeping cleaning crew in position ahead of time, they save six seconds. In the same way 2.08 minutes
are saved in cleaning time through standardised workflow methods, such as placing cleaning supplies in
prearranged kits.
Standard loading time for passengers in airbus-320 is 19.32 minutes, the efficient ones save 3.32 minutes
by active management of overhead storage bin by flight attendants. The agent delivers the passenger
list to crew in six seconds less than standard, by handing it over as soon as the last passenger boards the
plane.
By remaining alert, the aircraft the agent closes the door 0.9 seconds earlier than standard and through
this alertness detaches the boarding ramp 48 seconds earlier. As is evident from the above example,
lean-production is about saving time up to precious seconds.
Lean practices to some extent are in vogue in the manufacturing sector, but the services sector is also
ripe for these practices. It can be adopted in retail banking, hospitals, restaurants, asset management.
In retail banking, most of the processes are physical, like an assembly line, such as handling paper
cheques and credit cards. The processes, similar to lean manufacturing, can be applied to make the banks
faster and more efficient.
The processes from admission to discharge can be streamlined through lean processes in the hospitals.
Lean techniques in restaurants improve product and service quality. Besides reducing wastes, these
techniques also reduce labour cost.
Efficient  deliveries  result  in  improvements  in  customers’  loyalty.  Lean  practice  in  the  coming  years,  will  
enable service and product companies to reach their long-term goal of eliminating waste across their
entire life cycle.
Every company will have to adopt lean practices, otherwise in 20 years, these companies will become
static.
https://www.thenews.com.pk//print/151316-Manufacturers-must-adopt-lean-production-to-
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