The Chartered Quality Institute

Lean manufacturing

Lean manufacturing is a management philosophy focusing on reduction of the seven wastes to improve overall customer value:

  • Transportation
  • Inventory
  • Motion
  • Waiting time
  • Over-production
  • Processing Itself
  • Defective Product (Scrap in manufactured products or any type of business.)

By eliminating waste (muda), quality is improved, production time and costs are reduced.

To solve the problem of waste, Lean Manufacturing has several "tools" at its disposal. These include constant process analysis (kaizen), "pull" production (by means of kanban) and mistake-proofing (poka-yoke).