What is Lean?
The core idea of lean manufacturing is actually quite simple…relentlessly work on eliminating waste from the manufacturing process.
So what is waste? Waste is defined as any activity that does not add value from the customer’s perspective. According to research conducted by the Lean Enterprise Research Centre (LERC), fully 60% of production activities in a typical manufacturing operation are waste – they add no value at all for the customer.
The good news is that just about every company has a tremendous opportunity to improve, using lean manufacturing techniques and other manufacturing best practices. Techniques that enable you to deliver higher quality products at significantly lower costs. Now that is something to get excited about!
It can be difficult to find reliable and well-written information about improvement techniques for manufacturing. So, our goal is to provide you with the absolute best source of easy-to-understand information for helping you improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and profitability of your manufacturing operations.
With that in mind, we have designed each topic on this site to be self-contained and to stand on its own. If you want to learn about a topic, simply forge ahead and read about it. We have worked to make it particularly easy to explore the topics that are of most interest to your situation.
We are interested in your comments and we are happy to answer your questions – send them to [email protected].
Easy
Our goal is to create learning materials that are easy to understand and easy to implement. We believe that even complex topics can be made easier and more accessible.
Practical
We are realistic about what is within the reach of most teams to accomplish – and the resource limitations that we all face. We want to help you achieve quick progress.
Flexible
We are not dogmatic about lean. We respect tradition and we honor heritage – but not at the expense of progress. We believe that lean should be living and adaptable.
People-Focused
We emphasize the critical role of people (like you) in creating sustainable long-term change. It’s one of the least appreciated and least practiced aspects of lean.
