Over the past ten years, the concept of lean manufacturing production has seen a huge evolution from an isolated practice to a mainstream methodology that is well known through-out the manufacturing and supply chain industry. This article focuses on how to achieve lean manufacturing success.

Lean manufacturing is thought of to be the consideration of the total cost of resources to achieve a specific objective and to eliminate waste.

There is sometimes some confusion regarding the concept of lean, whether it is the people or the tools that help to make lean work, in reality it is both. The key to making the transition to a lean organisation is a change to the organisations culture which must be driven from the top down and for employees to understand and embrace the change.

Is lean only about the plant floor?

There is some confusion as to whether lean is only for the plant floor. While the manufacturing floor of a business provides the most tangible and significant opportunity to implement lean methodologies, the same principles can be applied across every aspect of the business. Once lean principles have been established, these guidelines can benefit nearly every department in the organisation, including project management, finance, human resources, purchasing and supplier management, customer services, sales and marketing, inventory control and manufacturing.

The Essentials of Lean Manufacturing

In order to understand lean manufacturing, it is important to understand the guiding principles of lean and the elements that comprise a lean initiative. Lean manufacturing is a greater focus on operational efficiency, the removal of waste, continuous improvement and the basic concept of being able to do more with less. The benefits of a lean organisation include:

 Reduced lead times

 Improved delivery performance

 Increased sales revenue

 Lower operating costs and increased profits

 Improved customer satisfaction and supplier relations

 A reduction in inventory

 Increased employee moral and retention

 Improved quality

 Creation of additional working capital for new projects

 Reduced warehouse space

That is why Infor Enterprise Resource Planning Software can help you to reduce your operational costs, improve efficiency and adopt lean manufacturing processes in your organisation.