Why you should use lean manufacturing

More and more manufacturing companies are seeing the benefits of using lean manufacturing. Lean manufacturing is one of the most efficient ways to take out waste from all aspects of your business and reduce the money that you are spending to produce your products. Many manufacturing companies report that soon after implementing lean manufacturing they find that their products have much less defects and their customers are much happier. There are several different reasons why you should use lean manufacturing. Here are a few of those reasons-

- Lean manufacturing is easy to understand-There are some manufacturing processes that are highly complicated and difficult to understand. Thankfully lean manufacturing is not one of them. It does not take extensive training and an advanced degree in order to understand lean manufacturing.
- Lean manufacturing is easy to implement-In addition, to being easy to understand this is also not a difficult process to put into place. Many manufacturing companies report that lean manufacturing is extremely easy to put into place. Best of all lean manufacturing is very versatile which makes it effective for almost any type and size of manufacturing company.
- Lean manufacturing is employee oriented-Manufacturing is a highly employee driven type of business. Savvy manufacturing business owners know that in order to succeed in improving the production process they will need to get their employees involved. Lean manufacturing only works with employee commitment. When employees are committed to the process they are able to make it work successfully.
- Lean manufacturing is solely focused on reducing or eliminating waste-Waste costs money and successful manufacturing companies know that in order to be profitable they need to do everything they can to eliminate or reduce waste. Lean manufacturing can help you do that. The strategies of lean manufacturing when they are correctly implemented will not only identify wastes in the production process but help to devise strategies to eliminate them. Keep in mind that there are a variety of different types of waste. Waste can be anything from paying too much for your inventory to not correctly utilizing your workforce.
There are several different areas where lean manufacturing can improve the production process of any manufacturing company. These areas are-
- Reducing labor costs-Lean manufacturing will help you to identify where you need your employees and where you may be over or under scheduled. Then you can determine the best way to correctly utilize your employees in order to get the highest possible productivity.
- Production planning-Many manufacturing companies' notice the first changes are made here after lean manufacturing has been implemented. Lean manufacturing will help production planners determine the correct amount of inventory that needs to be produced in order to prevent over or under production. This eliminates the problem of inventory that is sitting to long on shelves, has to be warehoused or worse yet prevents a short out leaving you with unhappy customers.
- Inventory control-Lean manufacturing is designed to help manufacturing companies have just the right amount of inventory on hand in order to fill their customer's orders. This means that you won't have to have a large inventory in your warehouse that is waiting to be worked on and is tying up your cash reserves. Keep in mind that inventory control is not only an essential function of the production process but also has a direct effect on the finances of the manufacturing company.
- Time management-One of the biggest benefits of implementing lean manufacturing is found in better time management. This will help to reduce the time that employees are standing around waiting for other people, more products, or just not being productive.