The quest for operational excellence is relentless in today’s intensely competitive manufacturing ecosystem, and it calls for waste and inefficiency elimination. A lean management system (LMS) is the systematic solution that can make it happen.
Originally embraced by Toyota, lean management focuses on continuous organizational improvement and creation of more value for customers. Let’s delve deeper into what an LMS entails, offers, and how to implement it on your shop floor.
What Is a Lean Management System (LMS)?
It is a methodological framework that helps in implementing lean principles in your organization and sustaining the same. From reducing lead times and costs to improving product quality and involving all employees in continuous improvement, an LMS helps in multiple ways.
Essentially, it helps meet both organizational and customer purposes, while managing performance and improvement. And at its core, an LMS helps identify and reduce these 7 wastes or muda:
- Transportation : Material movement that’s not required
- Inventory : Storing more products than necessary
- Motion : Inefficient movement of tools or manpower
- Waiting : Time spent on waiting for approvals, inputs, and decisions
- Overprocessing : Doing more than what the customer deems valuable
- Overproduction : Producing more than necessary
- Defects : Errors that require rework
The Principles & Components of an LMS
The core lean manufacturing principles listed below strive to figure out what really generates value for customers.
- Value Identification
For any organization, the ultimate objective is to create a product that the customer considers valuable or is willing to pay for. Hence, you must analyze the needs and expectations of the customer in detail.
By defining value from the customer’s point of view, you can focus on what truly matters, streamline processes, and remove anything that doesn’t add value.
- Value Stream Mapping
Once value is identified, visualize the value stream or production flow or all those processes that lead to the value’s creation. Since this mapping encompasses all production stages, it’s easy to spot activities that aren’t valuable or wasteful.
- Continuous Flow Creation
This principle involves value stream optimization, so the production process is smooth and devoid of bottlenecks, interruptions, and delays. This way, you can boost production flexibility, reduce cycle times, improve product quality, and respond to demand fluctuations fast.
- Pull System Establishment
A pull system in lean is about allowing customer demand to trigger production. This principle paves the road to just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing. You produce only what’s required, when it’s required, and in the desired quantity.
With a pull system, teams finish tasks more effectively and efficiently and workflows stabilize. So, you can reduce inventory and waste.
- Pursuit of Perfection
While taking care of the above principles will help you set up a lean management system, don’t ignore continuous improvement (of products, processes, and services).
Foster a culture of constant innovation, one in which employees spot improvement opportunities themselves. Work on augmenting the value delivered to customers and leverage new technologies to address market changes efficiently.
Now, let’s look at an LMS’s key components that contribute to performance and improvement management:
- Leader Standard Work (LSW)
Leader Standard Work (LSW) helps standardize routines, tools, and skills, thereby removing process variation and improving efficiency and predictability. Leaders review performance metrics, solve problems, and conduct Gemba walks.
These walks allow leaders to understand frontline challenges, interact with and support workers, validate data, and drive continuous improvement.
- Visual Management
Visual management simplifies communication and helps derive actionable insights from complex data. Hence, it’s critical to lean manufacturing. You can leverage lean tools like Kanban cards, Andon boards, color-coded workflows, and digital personalized dashboards for this.
Safety, Quality, Cost, Delivery, and People (SQCDP) indicators also provide a helpful overview of workflows and tasks, making it easy to address abnormalities.
- 5S Methodology
A crucial component of Lean Six Sigma, this Japanese methodology helps in creating a more productive and organized work environment. The 5S stand for:
- Sort
- Set in order
- Shine
- Standardize
- Sustain
Many manufacturing establishments also follow the 6S methodology where the sixth S indicates safety.
- Continuous Improvement
Since the ultimate goal of a lean management system is to ensure constant improvement, implement methodologies like Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycles and Kaizen.
While PDCA is a design and management method that’s iterative in nature, Kaizen encourages waste identification and elimination through:
- Daily small improvements
- Structured larger improvements
- Engagement from frontline workers and leaders
The Benefits of a Lean Management System
When properly built and implemented, an LMS can unlock the following benefits:
- Increased Engagement
When employees can spot what’s slowing them down on their own, they get better at solving such problems. This boosts their sense of ownership, morale, and focus. Employees also waste less time on activities that don’t add value, which implies greater productivity.
- Improved Efficiency
A lean management system allows you to establish a continuous and stable production flow backed by a pull system. This means reduced takt time and enhanced ability to address changing customer demands swiftly. It also becomes possible to produce more with the same resources and without exhausting teams.
- Fewer Reworks
Since you can detect and remove defects at the earliest with an LMS, the items manufactured are of better quality. This means fewer rejects and reworks, which helps you save both time and money.
- Reduced Cost
LMS eliminates muda in the form of inefficient processes, overproduction, manufacturing defects, or extra inventory etc. This naturally cuts down on production costs. You improve profitability and minimize expenses by concentrating only on value-adding tasks.
- Greater Customer Satisfaction
LMS is the key to understanding and meeting customer needs better. You can deliver top-quality products quickly and at a lower cost. Hence, the increased value you offer leads to greater customer satisfaction.
- Positive Culture
With lean management, you can build and promote a culture of collective problem-solving, collaboration, and employee engagement and empowerment. This fosters better communication, accountability, and the motivation to continuously improve.
A Management System That Focuses on Maintaining Lean Inventories
An LMS emphasizes just-in-time production driven by actual customer demand. Hence, there’s no overproduction. The what, when, and quantity of production are determined by what the consumer needs or wants.
So, you don’t have to stockpile excess materials or finished items. Also, maintaining lean inventories leads to better production flow and efficiency, lower storage cost, and agile operations.
Lean and Quality Management Systems: Can They Work Together?
Yes, when implemented appropriately, quality and lean management systems can work together and strengthen each other. That’s because both systems revolve around the delivery of consistent value to consumers.
While lean is about improving workflows, removing waste, and augmenting efficiency, quality management deals with controlled processes, standardization, customer satisfaction, and regulatory compliance. So, what happens when they come together?
Lean tools help streamline quality management processes, while quality management standards make sure the bettered processes are documented, repeated, and monitored. In other words, while lean boosts efficiency and facilitates constant improvement, quality management ensures such improvements are compliant, stable, and sustainable.
Combining these management systems make your organization innovation-ready and agile.
How to Implement a Lean Management System in Your Factory
Follow these key steps when implementing a lean management system:
- Assess the Present State
Understand your factory’s current position by mapping workflows, processes, and material movements. Detect waste, bottlenecks, and variation. Get maintenance teams, operators, and supervisors to share insights.
- Define Lean Objectives
Your goals should be associated with business priorities. They might include reduction of lead time, increase in productivity, better on-time delivery, or defect reduction. Set up measurable KPIs too, so you can track progress easily.
- Involve Employees
Impart training on lean principles like value stream mapping (VSM), 5S methodology, Kaizen, Kanban etc. Establish cross-functional teams for better collaboration. Foster a culture that motivates everyone to improve constantly and solve problems of their own accord.
- Conduct a VSM Workshop
From raw materials to delivery, map the complete value stream to identify activities that add or don’t add value. Visualize buildup of inventory, handoffs, rework loops, etc. Highlight different wastes.
- Implement 5S Methodology
Create a clean, safe, organized, and productive workspace. Eliminate items that aren’t required and arrange tools and materials properly. Inspect and clean equipment regularly and establish standard procedures and routines. Sustain the above with culture-building initiatives and 5S audits.
- Make Production Smooth
Take measures to produce as per actual demand instead of forecasts. Reduce batch sizes, level production, and implement Kanban to replenish materials just-in-time.
- Reduce Setup Time
The goal is to increase the availability of machines and production flexibility. So, standardize changeover procedures and streamline tool changes. Try to separate external setup work from internal too.
- Standardize Work Processes
To minimize variation and inconsistency, standardize work instructions. Set clear expectations related to takt time and leverage visual controls.
- Encourage Problem-Solving
Use root cause analysis tools like Fishbone diagrams and 5 Whys to solve problems for good. Encourage frontline workers to detect small problems and resolve them at the earliest.
- Monitor and Adjust
Every day or week, track lean KPIs like cycle time, lead time, downtime, defect rates, production efficiency, etc. Make performance visible to all with visual boards and digital dashboards. Study the results and tweak processes accordingly.
- Build a Continuous Improvement Culture
Make sure leaders engage on the shop floor actively by encouraging Gemba Walks. Promote an environment of experimentation and acknowledge the contribution of employees.
Building Continuous Improvement with an LMS
Setting up and implementing an LMS is non-negotiable in lean manufacturing. By eliminating waste or muda from all aspects of production, an LMS improves efficiency, reduces cost, boosts employee engagement, and helps churn out more quality products. It not only results in more satisfied customers, but also an environment of constant improvement and innovation.
And with fabriq, making the most of an LMS is unbelievably easy. From visualizing factory floor performance, detecting gaps, and taking prompt corrective actions to complying with standards and collaborating effectively, there’s plenty you can do.
See how replacing manual boards and spreadsheets with a modern Lean Management System powered by fabriq helps manufacturers eliminate waste faster, improve flow, and make continuous improvement stick.
