ABSTRACT
This chapter explores basic principles, tools, and actions that take place when companies attempt to implement Lean Manufacturing. Jamie Flinchbaugh and Andy Carlino in their book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road have defined waste as, “Anything beyond the absolute minimum amount of materials, manpower, and machinery needed to add value to a product or service”. Lean manufacturing is a whole-systems approach that focuses on identifying and eliminating non-value-added activities within a process. Lean attempts to involve everyone in the organization in the quest to eliminate any and all forms of waste everywhere in the process. Lean’s objectives are to use less human effort, less inventory, and less time to produce high-quality products as efficiently and economically as possible while being highly responsive to customer needs and demands. Lean Manufacturing has been generally recognized as one of the most effective business-improvement strategies in the world today, but many of the Lean initiatives are either failing or stagnating.
