When people try to wonder what exactly is lean manufacturing it is normal to simply presume that lean manufacturing is just something which is related to doing a few things only and getting the job done easily. However, one of the most important principles when it comes to this type of manufacturing strategy is to be able to get more with doing minimum.
This does not mean having to find shortcuts either, you will just be reducing the amount of waste and maintaining the same level of efficiency in production. It just means you are going to be making use of few resources to get the same job done. What exactly is waste? It is something which is not used or required to get a job done.
It could be in the form of a movement, or in other words you might have to walk from one point to another to get a portion of the job done. It could also refer to wasted handling, where you might have to send across products to different places to have it made eventually. On the other hand it could also be related go to excess inventory. This means that you are looking at storing many things when you actually do not have to store so much. Therefore, you will just end up paying a lot of money towards the warehousing and you will require manpower as well to handle the packing and checking of the products.
You may also be under the impression that lean manufacturing means people must try to pack all into one at a single point and the specialization aspect must not be implemented. The main fact is that specialization as well as lean manufacturing is not really exclusive.
Lean manufacturing just means that you must try to save some of the wasteful resources or steps to achieve more. Sometimes, the modern mangers believe a lot in job specialization and they always look at implementing this technique in the field of production as well. This could simply lead to more serious problems. Some of the jobs are mostly divided into smaller pieces and it does not make sense for people to do them all separately.
Lean manufacturing does deal with problems like this. It would make more sense to solve such problems by having to combine all the small steps and make those steps cost effective. However, some of the steps which have been talked about could also be combined and a step is made which is more cost effective. However, some of the steps which have also been defined well lean manufacturing is not really required in those cases. To make sure all the steps of lean manufacturing are going to be implanted the right way it is very important to check as well as analyze all the steps of the production well enough.
More About Lean Manufacturing:
http://www.solarsoft.com/research/manufacturing-benchmarking/boosting-lean-initiatives/
What is Lean Manufacturing?