Lean Principles

Lean Principles

Being Fast, Flexible, Economic

Author:
Dr Rhys Rowland-Jones

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Lean Principles

Session Plan:
• What is lean?
• How does lean work?
• Who is lean applicable to?
• 5 principles of lean
• The Toyota Production System
• Taiichi Ohno’s 7 Wastes
• 7 service wastes
• 5 S’s

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Lean Principles

What is lean?
• Lean manufacturing was developed by the Japanese automotive industry,
with a lead from Toyota and utilising the Toyota Production System (TPS),
following the challenge to re-build the Japanese economy after World War
II.
• The concept of lean thinking was introduced to the Western world in 1991
by the book “The Machine That Changed the World” written by Womack,
Jones, and Roos.
• Lean is a philosophy that seeks to eliminate waste in all aspects of a firm’s
production activities: human relations, vendor relations, technology, and the
management of materials and inventory.

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Lean Principles

How does Lean work?

• Considers an ‘end to end’ value stream that delivers
competitive advantage.
• Seeks fast flexible flow.
• Eliminates/prevents waste (Muda).
• Extends the Toyota Production System (TPS).

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Lean Principles

Who is Lean applicable to?

• Lean is principally associated with manufacturing industries but can
be equally applicable to both service and administration processes.
• Currently it is also being adopted by the food manufacturing and
meat processing sectors.
• It’s not a new phenomenon, Japanese auto manufacturers have
been developing Lean for over 50 years.

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Lean Principles

5 principles of Lean
• Value - specify what creates value from the customer’s perspective.
• The value stream – identify all the steps along the process chain.
• Flow - make the value process flow.
• Pull - make only what is needed by the customer (short term response to
the customer’s rate of demand).
• Perfection - strive for perfection by continually attempting to produce
exactly what the customer wants.

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Lean Principles

Value
 Any process that the customer would be prepared to pay for that
adds value to the product.
– The customer defines the value of product in a lean supply chain.
– Value-adding activities transform the product closer to what the
customer actually wants.
– An activity that does not add value is considered to be waste.

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The value stream

• The value stream is the sequence of processes from raw
material to the customer that create value.
• The value stream can include the complete supply chain.
• Value stream mapping is an integral aspect of Lean.

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 The Value Stream
Lean Principles

“The Value Stream is those set of tasks and activities

required to design and make a family of products or
services that are undertaken with a group of linked
functions or companies from the point of customer
specification right back to the raw material source.”
(Hines et al, 2000)

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Lean Principles

Flow
• Using one piece flow by linking of all the
activities and processes into the most
efficient combinations to maximize value-
added content while minimizing waste.
• The waiting time of work in progress between
processes is eliminated, hence adding value
more quickly.

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Lean Principles

Pull
• Pull = response to the customer’s rate of demand i.e. the
actual customer demand that drives the supply chain.
• Based on a supply chain view from downstream to
upstream activities where nothing is produced by the
upstream supplier until the downstream customer signals
a need.

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Lean Principles

Perfection

• The journey of continuous improvement.

• Producing exactly what the customer wants,
exactly when, economically.
• Perfection is an aspiration, anything and
everything is able to be improved.

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The Cornerstone of Lean –

The Toyota Production System
• Based on two philosophies:
• 1. Elimination of waste

• 2. Respect for people

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Toyota Production System’s

Four Rules
1. All work shall be highly specified as to content, sequence, timing,
and outcome.

2. Every customer-supplier connection must be direct, and there must

be an unambiguous yes-or-no way to send requests and receive
responses.

3. The pathway for every product and service must be simple and
direct.

4. Any improvement must be made in accordance with the scientific

method, under the guidance of a teacher, at the lowest possible
level in the organization.

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Lean Principles

Taiichi Ohno’s 7 Wastes (muda)

• types of waste:

overproduction

waiting time

transport

process

inventory

motion

defective goods

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7 Service Wastes
Source – John Bicheno, Lean Toolbox (2003)
• Delay – customers waiting for service.
• Duplication – having to re-enter data, repeat details etc.
• Unnecessary movement - poor ergonomics in the service encounter.
• Unclear communication – having to seek clarification, confusion over use of
product/service.
• Incorrect inventory – out of stock.
• Opportunity lost – to retain or win customers.
• Errors – in the transaction, lost/damaged goods.

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Lean Principles

The 5S’s
• The 5S‘s are simple but effective methods to organise the
workplace.
• The methodology does however, go beyond this simple concept,
and is concerned with making orderly and standardized operations
the norm, rather than the exception.
• Posters bearing the 5S terms can be found on the walls of
Japanese plants, and are a visual aid to organisational
management.

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Lean Principles

The Japanese Origins

• Seiri Sort
• This requires the classifying of items into two categories, necessary and unnecessary,
and disregarding or removing the latter.
• Seiton Straighten
• Once Seiri has been carried out Seiton is implemented to classify by use, and arrange
items to minimise search time and effort. The items left should have a designated area,
with specified maximum levels of inventory for that area.

• Seison Shine
• Seison means cleaning the working environment. It can help in the spotting of potential
problems as well as reducing the risk of fire/injury by cleaning away the potential
causes of accidents.

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Lean Principles

The Japanese Origins

• Seiketsu Systematise
• Seiketsu means keeping one's person clean, by such means as wearing
proper working clothes, safety glasses, gloves and shoes, as well as
maintaining a clean healthy working environment. It can also be viewed as
the continuation of the work carried out in Seiri, Seiton, and Seison.
• Shitsuke Sustain
– Shitsuke means self-discipline.
• The 5 S‘s may be viewed as a philosophy, with employees following
established and agreed upon rules at each step. By the time they arrive at
Shitsuke they will have developed the discipline to follow the 5 S‘s in their
daily work.

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Lean Principles

Summary
• Lean manufacturing was developed by the Japanese.
• Lean is a philosophy that seeks to eliminate waste in all aspects of a firm’s
production activities.
• Lean is principally associated with manufacturing industries but can be also
equally applicable to both service and administration processes.
• Works on 5 basic principles.
• Cornerstone of Lean is the Toyota Production System.
• Considers 7 Wastes (muda).
• Utilises 5 S methodology.

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