OCTOBER 19-20, 2012 - YMCA University of Science & Technology

Proceedings of the National Conference on
Trends and Advances in Mechanical Engineering,
YMCA University of Science & Technology, Faridabad, Haryana, Oct 19-20, 2012
LEAN MANUFACTURING SYSTEM: AN OVERVIEW
Rakesh Kumar 1* , Vikas Kumar 2
1 Research Scholar, YMCA University of Science and Technology, Faridabad-121006 (Haryana)
2 Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, YMCA University of Science and Technology,
Faridabad-121006 (Haryana)
1* e-mail: rakesh_siwach@yahoo.com
Abstract
Manufacturing organizations has always been facing pressure to align themselves with fast changing customer
requirements quickly and at low cost. To meet these challenges Lean Manufacturing is widely accepted
philosophy which helps industry by making them able to solve manufacturing issues, identification and
elimination of waste, improving their productivity, quality, reducing cost and developing people for next level of
challenges. Purpose of this paper is to present concept and overview of Lean Manufacturing.
Keywords: Lean Manufacturing, Concept, objectives, principles, implications, Lean structure
1. Introduction
Many of the best practices in manufacturing have been practiced and developed by Toyota. Toyota got famous
for efficient operations in 80’s all over the world by effectively implementation of JIT system. Toyota
Production System has been studied by many of researchers namely Adler, 1993; Womack and Jones, 1994;
Liker, 1998; Sobek et al. 1998; Spear and Bowen, 1999; Mike Rother, 2009. Brox and Fader, 2002 defined justin-time
(JIT) production as a manufacturing way of life that identifies and eliminates all forms of waste from the
system and calls for continual improvement. In this philosophy non value adding activities are identified and
either reduced or eliminated resulting in reduction of cost, productivity improvement, improved quality and
delivery. In 1990 a book written by Womack, Jones and Ross “The machine that changed the word” studied
Toyota production system and termed it as Lean Production or Lean Manufacturing. Now a days Lean
manufacturing has been admired in manufacturing sector around the world and it has been looked upon as
remedy to continue to be competitive in global market (25). Adoption and properly implementation of lean
manufacturing has improved overall performance of manufacturing organizations so it has become the most
powerful manufacturing system in the world (5, 24).
Manufacturing industries over the global are rapidly shifting their production method from Ford model of batch
manufacturing to a new approach of Toyota Production system named lean manufacturing. The simple reason is
that the organizations which have adopted lean manufacturing or Toyota production system has gained more
advantage then the previous one (11). Many researchers has studied on lean manufacturing implementation in
India and has focused on industry which are still working on Henry Ford mass production principles and are
motivated by an out-of-date batch and queue state of mind. At the same time scope of lean manufacturing
implementation is studied in Indian context. It has been observed that many companies in India are now feeling
the heat of global competition and this has motivated to take serious step forward towards adoption of lean
manufacturing (14).
2. Concept of Lean Manufacturing:
The term lean describes Japanese systems, which comparative to mass production uses fewer resources to
achieve the output, which is better in terms of quality and satisfy the needs of customers (26).Lean
Manufacturing is set of tools and techniques which aim to create a customer centric organization by developing
and adopting best manufacturing practices with the involvement of all level of employees. Continuous
improvement culture with the use of different tools is the spirit of the idea. Researchers and practitioner has
developed many tools and techniques to improve manufacturing from different ways and means.
Purposes of lean manufacturing is to reduce manufacturing cost and lead time, work in progress inventory and
improve product quality by identifying and eliminating all the forms of waste present in the system.
I. Processes standardization – Standard Work or Processes standardization calls for very detailed
production guidelines to be implemented, which clearly states all the contents of work, motion,
sequences, timing and output of the action performed by operator. This ensures lesser variation in the
repeated actions of the workers while performing their job.
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