Lean manufacturing or traditional manufacturing processes, which is better?

Traditional manufacturing processes can work for some companies. Other organizations have found that traditional manufacturing methods are plagued with a number of problems and it leaves their company with a higher defect ratio along with reduced employee morale and productivity. This is why so many organizations have turned to lean manufacturing.

What do you think of when you hear lean manufacturing? If you are like other companies you probably think of kanban cards, total quality management, along with work cells. Lean manufacturing was developed for manufacturing and it does work if you allow yourself to grasp the concepts and to have a complete mindset change.

To understand how lean manufacturing compares to traditional manufacturing, lets first take a look at what it is. Lean manufacturing is defined as "a systematic approach to continuously identify and remove the wastes from the system." In short, lean manufacturing helps you get rid of waste and save money. In order to make lean manufacturing work, you need to follow all of the rules and determine which method to implement as there are several methods to choose from.

What does it mean to remove waste from a company? When you are talking about removing waste you are simply referring to reducing how long it takes you to produce products and how many left-over products go to the recycle bin because they are damaged or ruined. The removal of waste means you will fine turn the way your existing manufacturing system works.

Take a look at your bottom line right now. How much waste are you currently producing and are you taking steps to reduce those wastes right now? Are the steps you are taking actually working or do you think it is adding to the problem due to the way it is set up? If employees are standing around and spending more time on "fixing" problems rather than production you are actually creating new waste, which can sometimes be worse than the original waste you have.

To fix and remove waste you have to redefine the way your manufacturing process is being run. Go though and fine tune your machines so that they won't have defects and that you are removing all wastes from the system. As you do this, you will have a stronger organization that is built upon the right principles.

Focus on what is causing the waste. Are your employees causing the waste due to their slow performance? Perhaps your machines are not being maintained properly or you aren't focusing on servicing them daily to help reduce waste.

To understand more about lean manufacturing and how it differs from traditional manufacturing, look at work in progress and how it helps to make your system run smoothly. With work in progress you will implement it in traditional manufacturing to find out where problems are. Since it is a time consuming process, lean manufacturing considers this concept to be a waste. Instead you will see that work in progress is an imperfection in your overall production system and it is not contributing to the success of the company.

Lean manufacturing is a great way to help increase the efficiency of your manufacturing plant but it is not a perfect system. This is why so many companies also turn to Six Sigma as they are focusing on imperfections in the system and to make sure errors are not only reduced, but eliminated from the system. Always do your research on lean manufacturing before you start using kanban cards and before you try to change the mindset of your employees as it may not be the best system out there for the type of business you wish to run.