FundamentalsLean Manufacturing

What is Lean?

Lean is an operating philosophy that maximises customer value by systematically removing waste — activities the customer won’t pay for. The method originates in the Toyota Production System (TPS).

Lean rests on five principles: define value from the customer’s point of view, map the value stream, create flow, establish pull and pursue perfection through continuous improvement. The tools — 5S, VSM, SMED, kanban — are means, not the goal.

The most common misconception is treating Lean as a project with an end date. Lean is a way of running a business, and it only lasts if management changes its own behaviour, not just the employees’.

Read: Lean doesn’t fail — management does

Related concepts

Muda (waste)

Muda is Japanese for waste: any activity that consumes resources without creating value for the customer. Lean classically identifies 7 types of waste — transport, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, over-processing and defects — often supplemented by an 8th: unused talent.

Value stream

A value stream is all the activities — value-adding and non-value-adding — required to bring a product or service from order to delivery. The value stream is the unit of analysis in Lean: this is where waste and flow become visible.

Kaizen

Kaizen is Japanese for “change for the better” and denotes continuous improvement in small steps, driven by the employees who work in the process. Its opposite is large, rare improvement projects driven from the outside.

Flow

Flow means an item or a case moves through the process without stops, accumulation or waiting. Perfect flow is one-piece production: each item is processed and passed on immediately.

From concept to practice

The methods only work when they are anchored in daily routines and leadership behaviour. The operations check shows in 4 minutes where your operations stand, and what the next step is.

Take the operations check