The Lean Manufacturing System the Search for Productivity Improvements and the Genesis of Lean Manufacturing

Over the past 10 years or so, lean manufacturing has been receiving an increasing amount of attention as one source for productivity improvements and cost reductions in manufacturing. Hailed by its proponents as a breakthrough means to analyze and improve production and the factory floor environment, lean manufacturing is a broad collection of principles and practices that can improve corporate performance. The argument is that lean manufacturing offers revolutionary rather than evolutionary efficiency improvements. While lean manufacturing has received a lot of publicity since the term was coined as part of a study analyzing world automobile production, it is very difficult to find a concise definition of the term that describes all aspects of the system. Lean manufacturing is very closely related to Total Quality Management and derives from the Toyota production model. It involves a reconceptualization of the entire production process as a closely interconnected system from which buffers are removed. All the different activities that are part of the production process must be carefully coordinated to maximize the benefits of lean; the associated organizational and coordination requirements make implementing lean production a difficult and complex endeavor.