Legacy Foundation Business and Leadership

Archive for October, 2009

The concepts behind Lean manufacturing were built on common sense. In his book “Poor Richard’s Almanack”, Benjamin Franklin wrote “He that idly loses 5s. [shillings] worth of time, loses 5s., and might as prudently throw 5s. into the river.” If I read this right what he meant was “if you don’t need it, don’t waste your money on it.”

While it was Henry Ford who took the concept of waste reduction into the manufacturing floor, it was Toyota that concretized the practice into what we now call lean concepts.

Lean manufacturing processes have revolutionized the way many leading enterprises deliver products to their customers and manage their supplier relationships. Over the past few years, the use of Lean techniques has expanded well beyond the automotive industry to delivering dramatic results in other sectors, including aerospace, consumer goods, and industrial equipment, among others.

According to AberdeenGroup, Lean concepts have helped manufacturers streamline processes and reduce cycle times in complex manufacturing and supply chain environments. For example, when applied to product development these same concepts result in increased productivity and potentially the ability to develop more profitable products.

In “The Lean Benchmark Report, Closing the Reality Gap,” Jane Biddle, Vice President of Manufacturing Research, AberdeenGroup, notes that although C-level executives are enthusiastic about the benefits that can be derived from “Leaning out” operations. A large performance gap exists between those companies that are simply using Lean techniques on the shop floor versus those that have built a culture based on Lean thinking. Read the rest of this entry »