The Complete

Lean Manufacturing
Guide
Everything You Need to Know
About Eliminating Waste and
Increasing Productivity
 Table of Contents

What is Lean Manufacturing? ….…………………………………………... 3

History of Lean Manufacturing: Training Within Industry,

Toyota Production System (TPS), and Beyond ……………………. 9

Lean Manufacturing Principles ……………..……………………………... 14

Kaizen: Continuous Improvement …………………………..….…………. 18

Lean Manufacturing Tools ………………………………….…….……………. 22

Lean Manufacturing in the Age of Industry 4.0 ………………….. 26

 CHAPTER 1

What is Lean Manufacturing?

Lean Manufacturing Defined

Lean manufacturing is a systematic framework for eliminating

waste from a manufacturing system, or value stream, without
sacrificing productivity. The value stream comprises all of the
activity and information streams that exist between the raw
material supplier and the possession of the customer. Lean is
about empowering people at all levels of an organization to
identify and eliminate waste in order to continuously increase
the value delivered to customers.

A lean mentality and culture adds value and reduces activities

that decrease value. Put simply, lean manufacturing aims to
create more value for customers while reducing waste.

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The 8 Wastes of Lean
• Inventory: keeping more than the minimum stock of raw
In lean, “value” is defined as any action or process that a
materials, parts, work in process (WIP), and finished goods
customer would be willing to pay for. Meanwhile, “waste” is
necessary.
defined as anything that doesn’t add value to a product, or
cost without benefit. Lean practitioners commonly agree on 7
• Motion: movements made by operators or machines beyond
wastes, which are derived from the Just in Time mentality to
what is necessary
reduce costs and increase value:

• Defects: time and effort spent correcting and inspecting

• Overproduction: producing more, sooner, or faster than is
rework and scrap
required by the next process or customer

• Waiting: operators standing idle while machines cycle, Some practitioners include an 8th waste: unutilized talent.
equipment fails, parts delay, etc. While the first 7 wastes are directly related to manufacturing
processes, the waste of unutilized talent is specific to
• Transport (or conveyance): movement of parts and products manufacturing management. Remember that lean is focused
beyond the absolute minimum necessary on humans; without humans, there is no lean culture.

• Overprocessing: unnecessary or incorrect processing

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The 8 wastes of lean manufacturing: transport, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, overprocessing,
defects, and unutilized talent.

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The Lean Manufacturing Cycle

The Lean Enterprise Institute lays out a 5-step cycle for The Lean Enterprise Institute’s 5-Step Lean
implementing lean: Manufacturing Cycle

1. Specify value from the standpoint of the end customer by

product family.

2. Identify all the steps in the value stream for each product
family, eliminating whenever possible those steps that do not
create value.

3. Make the value-creating steps occur in tight sequence so the

product will flow smoothly toward the customer.

4. As flow is introduced, let customers pull value from the next

upstream activity.

5. As value is specified, value streams are identified, wasted

steps are removed, and flow and pull are introduced, begin
the process again and continue it until a state of perfection is
reached in which perfect value is created with no waste.

The Lean Enterprise Institute established a 5-step cycle for implementing lean.

7
Thinking With Lean Philosophy

To accomplish this goal, organizations implement lean thinking

both in their management and production philosophies.
According to the Lean Enterprise Institute, “lean thinking
changes the focus of management from optimizing separate
technologies, assets, and vertical departments to optimizing
the flow of products and services through entire value streams
that flow horizontally across technologies, assets, and
departments to customers.”

Lean manufacturing is a continuously evolving effort that

requires understanding and participation from all levels of an
organization. Just as important to achieving a lean operation as
the technical implementation is lean thinking. There are a
variety of strategies for reducing waste in a production
process, but it is also important to understand and internalize
the underlying philosophies in order to sustain a lean operation
and continue to strive toward a perfect, zero-waste operation.

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 CHAPTER 2

History of Lean: Training Within Industry, Toyota Production

System (TPS), and Beyond
Early Lean Concepts

The core principles of lean manufacturing can be traced to as

early as Benjamin Franklin, who documented examples of
waste reduction in his experiments in the mid-1700s. He
foreshadowed the lean principle of avoiding costs in the
famous adage now known as “a penny saved is a penny
earned” in Poor Richard’s Almanac: “A penny saved is two
pence clear. A pin a-day is a groat a-year. Save and have.”

Franklin also warned against carrying unnecessary inventory,

writing in The Way to Wealth: “You call them goods; but, if you
do not take care, they will prove evils to some of you. You
expect they will be sold cheap, and, perhaps, they may [be
bought] for less than they cost; but, if you have no occasion for
them, they must be dear to you.”

The core principles of lean manufacturing can be traced

to as early as Benjamin Franklin.

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In 1911, Frederick Winslow Taylor introduced what would Training Within Industry
become known as standardization and best practice
deployment. Taylor wrote in The Principles of Scientific
Management: In 1940, the United States Department of War created
Training Within Industry, a service designed to provide job
“And whenever a workman proposes an improvement, it training in war-related industries that were impacted by the
should be the policy of the management to make a careful shortage of skilled personnel due to military conscription.
analysis of the new method, and if necessary conduct a series Training Within Industry consisted of four core programs:
of experiments to determine accurately the relative merit of the
new suggestion and of the old standard. And whenever the ● Job Instruction (JI), which teaches a method to
new method is found to be markedly superior to the old, it instruct an operator on how to perform a process
should be adopted as the standard for the whole correctly, safely and conscientiously
establishment.” ● Job Relations (JR), which teaches the foundations of
building positive employee relationships, increasing
Soon after, Henry Ford developed his mass assembly cooperation and motivation, and effectively resolving
manufacturing system, which recognized and eschewed conflict
material and motion waste, to great success. ● Job Methods (JM), which teaches employees to
evaluate their work and suggest improvements
In his autobiography My Life and Work, Ford summarized lean ● Program Development (PD), which teaches those in
manufacturing in one sentence: “We will not put into our charge of training to assist line supervisors in
establishment anything that is useless.” problem-solving

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By the end of World War II in 1945, over 1.6 million workers in TPS is grounded by 6 principles, known as The Toyota Way:
over 16,500 plants had received a certification in Training
Within Industry. ● Continuous improvement
● Respect for people
Toyota Production System ● Long-term philosophy
● The right process will produce the right results
Heavily influenced by Training Within Industry, which spread
● Add value to the organization by developing your
to Japan after the end of World War II, the Toyota Production
System (TPS) was developed in Japan between 1948 and people and partners
1975 by Taiichi Ohno and Eiji Toyoda, industrial engineers at ● Continuously solving root problems drives
Toyota. The Toyota Production System has been widely lauded
organizational learning
as the system that made Toyota as successful as it is today.

TPS is grounded on two main conceptual pillars:

just-in-time–the principle of producing only what is needed,
only when it is needed, and only in the amount that is
needed–and jidoka, the concept of “automation with a human
touch.” The main objective of TPS is to eliminate waste
(“muda”) by designing out overburden (“muri”) and
inconsistency (“mura”).

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 Evolution of Lean
While lean manufacturing has been influenced and evolved
over the decades, it is based largely on the Toyota Production
System (TPS). The term “lean” was first coined by John Krafcik
in 1988 in his article, “Triumph of the Lean Production
System,” based on his experience as a quality engineer at the
Toyota-GM NUMMI venture in California. TPS soon became
widely known due to the publication of the book by James P.
Womack, Arthur Roos, and Daniel Jones, based on Krafcik’s
research, titled The Machine That Changed the World.

Production line at Toyota (source)

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 CHAPTER 3

Lean Manufacturing Principles

The following principles underlie the techniques of lean
implementations:

Just in Time production

Just-in-time (JIT) production refers to a system of production
that makes and delivers what is needed, just when it is
needed, and just in the amount needed. Just-in-time is
The Best Insights Come from Standardized Data
comprised of three elements: takt time, continuous flow, and
pull system.

Takt time refers to how often a part or product should be

produced to meet customer requirements based on the rate of
sales. Takt time is calculated by dividing the available working
Takt time refers to how often a part or product should be produced to meet customer
time per shift by the rate of customer demand per shift. requirements based on the rate of sales.
Producing to takt time means that a manufacturing system is
able to respond quickly to problems, eliminate causes of
unplanned downtime, and reduce changeover time.

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Continuous flow means producing and moving one item at a Jidoka
time (or a small, consistent batch) to match takt time. Each
item is passed immediately from one process step to the next, Jidoka translates to “automation with a human touch,” or
without any wasted time (or any other waste) in between. “autonomation.” It refers to providing machines and operators
the ability to detect when an abnormal situation has occurred
Continuous flow was developed through the Ford System and and immediately stop work to institute countermeasures.
includes concepts such as using consistently interchangeable Adopting Jidoka enables work to be more efficient because
parts so that cycle times can be consistent; the assembly line operators are freed to do work that creates value rather than
itself; arranging machines so that parts could flow smoothly keep watch at machines to prevent defects.
between tasks; and ensuring that the rate of parts fabrication
matched the consumption rate of parts in final assembly.
The concept of jidoka was developed when Sakicho Toyoda,
founder of the Toyota Group, invented an automatic loom that
Pull system refers to arranging all the processes in the
would stop automatically when a thread broke, quickly eject
production sequence in a single, smooth flow based on the
near-empty shuttles, and insert a new one at just the right
rate of sales. Basically, sales demand drive production,
moment. This invention enabled operators to do more
because it “pulls” items from the manufacturing process
value-creating work rather than monitor the looms. The
concept of designing machinery that would stop automatically
when problems arose and call attention to issues eventually
became a crucial part of every process at Toyota.

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Heijunka (level production) Standardized Work
Standardized work is the principle of establishing precise
Heijunka refers to leveling the type and quantity of production
procedures to make correct products in the safest, easiest, and
over a fixed period of time. This enables production to
most effective way based on current technologies.
efficiently meet customer demands while avoiding batching.
Standardized work requires three elements: takt time, work
Heijunka also minimizes inventories, capital costs, manpower,
sequence, and standard inventory (or in-process stock).
and production lead time throughout the value stream.

An example of heijunka is alternating between producing small Standardized work results in benefits such as the
batches of product A and product B rather than producing all documentation of current process for all shifts, reductions in
of product A in the morning and all of product B in the variability, easier training for new operators, and reductions in
afternoon. injuries and strain. Having standardized work for procedures
also provides a basis for continuous improvement, as
Kaizen improvement can only be truly measured from consistent
processes.
Kaizen, which translates to “changing something for the
better,” is the concept of continuous improvement. With
kaizen, manufacturers continuously improve standardized
processes, equipment, and other daily production procedures.
We’ll cover kaizen in depth in the next chapter of this guide.

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 CHAPTER 4

Kaizen: Continuous Improvement

The concept of continuous improvement is core to lean Improvements are based on small changes
manufacturing. It is one of the foundational principles of TPS.
Rather than wait for a major change to be implemented begin
Continuous improvement is also known as “kaizen,” which improving, change should be approached in small, incremental
translates to “changing something for the better” in Japanese. steps. This increases the speed to improvement and reduces
Lean manufacturers use kaizen to help eliminate waste. With the pressures of implementing a major change. In addition,
kaizen, manufacturers continuously improve standardized small changes are often less costly and therefore less risky.
processes, equipment, and other daily production procedures.
Kaizen is famously exemplified in TPS, where employees are To this end, a key to making incremental improvements is
required to stop the line if an abnormality arises and, along identifying and solving the root causes of issues. This allows
with their supervisors, suggest an improvement. employees to catch and contain small issues before they
become larger and costlier to eliminate, and it prevents the
Kaizen is guided by several principles, the foremost of which is same problems from reoccurring.
that good processes create good results:

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Improvements must be measurable, standardized, and Empowering the Employees
repeatable
In kaizen, it’s important to “speak with data and manage with Kaizen places emphasis on the value of employees at every
facts.” In order to evaluate improvements objectively, existing level of an organization. Employees who are closest to the
procedures must be standardized and documented. Measuring problem are the best-equipped to solve them. Further,
performance against existing benchmarks allows you to engaging team members to identify problems and suggest
demonstrate ROI from your kaizen efforts and keep the improvements in their work areas encourages a sense of
company aligned around improvement. It also allows you to ownership over their work, which can improve overall
identify areas where your efforts are working–or not–so you motivation, morale, and productivity. Training and empowering
can make strategic decisions about future improvements. employees to grow should be a part of your company’s
continuous improvement.

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Continuous Improvement Cycle and other implementations

According to John Shook, chairman and CEO of the Lean

Enterprise Institute, the Continuous Improvement Cycle
consists of three steps: seeing the workplace, identifying
problems, and implementing solutions.

John Shook’s continuous improvement cycle consists of 3 steps: seeing the workplace,
identifying problems, and implementing solutions.

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 CHAPTER 5

Lean Manufacturing Tools

The following are some of the most common techniques used 5S
in lean manufacturing:
5S is a systematic framework for workspace organization
Value Stream Mapping based on the idea that a better work environment results in
better operations, which in turn leads to better products. 5S
Value stream mapping refers to the process of identifying and provides five key steps for maintaining an efficient workspace
charting flows of information, processes, and physical goods in order to improve the quality of products: sort, set in order,
across the entire supply chain from the raw material supplier shine, standardize, and sustain.
to the possession of the customer. Basic planning tool for
identifying wastes, designing solutions, and communicating
lean concepts. Total Predictive Maintenance (TPM)

Poka Yoke Total Predictive Maintenance provides strategies for creating

employee ownership and autonomous maintenance of
Poka yoke refers to “mistake-proofing” or “error-proofing” a production equipment. TPM strategies include designing
process. The goal of poka yoke is to prevent product defects products that can be easily produced on existing machines,
from reaching customers by catching, correcting, and designing machines for easier operations, changeover, and
eliminating mistakes at the source. By integrating poka yoke maintenance, training workers to operate and maintain
inline, mistakes are either prevented or caught shortly after machines, purchasing machines that maximize productive
they happen. This prevents defective products from making it potential, and designing a preventive maintenance plan that
to the end of the process. As a result, a higher quality of output spans the life of the machine.
naturally follows.

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Visual Management Root Cause Analysis
Visual management involves making information about Root cause analysis is a method of problem solving aimed at
production processes and fundamental daily activities visually getting to the root cause of the issue. Methodologies used in
available in a coherent, timely, and regular manner. This makes lean manufacturing include the fishbone diagram (also known
it easier to determine production status and makes as the Ishikawa Diagram) and the 5 Whys.
abnormalities, waste, and scrap obvious. Examples of visual
management include kamishibai boards and kanban.
Gemba Walk
Kamishibai boards are used to audit kaizen in processes.
Modern Kamishibai boards are simple and flexible visual A gemba walk is defined as a tour of the shop floor. Gemba is
controls to perform mini-audits within a manufacturing a Japanese term defined as “the actual place”. The “gemba
process. When used correctly, they are powerful tools to walk” bridges theory and practice by bringing leaders to the
perform, manage and audit tasks of specific duties. shop floor to observe processes as they happen. This result is
the definition of “gemba walk”.
Kanban, which translates to “card” from Japanese, is a
signaling device that gives authorization and instruction for the
production or withdrawal of items in a pull system. Kanban
visualizes the flow of materials and information in a system,
most commonly using kanban cards.

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Andon
Andon is a system that notifies management of a quality or
process problem. This is often accomplished using a light stack
or other video or audio signal that alerts management of a
defect, shortage, or other issue.

Kitting

Kitting is the process of organizing components and parts

needed for a process prior to delivering them to the point of
use in order to save time on the production line. Kitting can
help free up space, reduce inventory, and increase productivity,
improving the efficiency of the assembly process.

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 Chapter 6

Lean Manufacturing in the Age of Industry 4.0

While lean methodologies have been tried and true for ● Use break beams to detect whether the operator has
decades, the emergence of Industry 4.0 has given rise to new reached into the correct bin, and prevent the process
technologies that can augment traditional lean strategies. from advancing to the next step until the correct part
is obtained

Error-proofing and quality at the source with smart ● Use a digital scale to detect whether a product weighs
sensors and devices as it should and halt the process if the weight does not
meet the requirements
As IIoT sensors, device integrations, and manufacturing
software become more accessible, it is becoming easier than ● Integrate tools such as torque drivers and calipers to
ever to error-proof manufacturing processes. Here are a few perform operations to exact specifications
examples of using smart sensors and devices to ensure
quality:
● Require products to pass machine vision inspections
before allowing them to proceed down the line
● Use pick-to-light systems to light up the correct bin or
part needed during a process step

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Using a pick-to-light system to guide the operator to the right bins

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Digitizing Standard Work Data Collection
Gone are the days of printing tens of pages of work We’ve already established the importance of “speaking with
instructions every time you update a process. There are many data and managing with facts” in lean manufacturing. After all,
options available for digital work instructions software that measuring performance against existing benchmarks is the
offer a much-improved experience for the operator. Digitizing only sure way to demonstrate ROI from your lean efforts. One
work instructions allows manufacturers to incorporate of the key benefits of the digital transformation of
multimedia and integrate with IoT tools and devices to make manufacturing is the ability to automatically collect data from
standard work more efficient and engaging for operators. machines, tools, operators, and processes. Integrating IoT
Digitizing standard work also has the benefits of being highly (Internet of Things) tools and hardware with manufacturing
customizable and allowing changes to automatically update software enables manufacturers to get an accurate view of
across a plant, ensuring that work instructions are always production and quality metrics such as production rate, defect
up-to-date. and scrap rate as well as defect causes, and process timing
such as process and step cycle times.

29
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