What is Lean Manufacturing?

Author(s): Ashvath Sharma

Lean manufacturing is a manufacturing system which was started by Toyota and is now used by many manufacturers throughout the world. Lean Manufacturing is a way to notice and remove waste i.e. non-profit activities by continuous improvement using the non-stop flow of the product to the customer with perfection. Waste is defined as anything that does not add any value to the product. It is anything that the customer is not ready to spend money for. Manufacturing of a product is completely dependent on designing a manufacturing system that leads to minimization of costs and maximization of profit. The fundamentals of manufacturing processes are Man (labour), Materials and Machines (equipments) and a perfect manufacturing system involves the complete utilization of these resources in a systematic manner.