What is Lean Production?
Lean Production is a manufacturing mode proposed by MIT in 1990 based on its research and summary of Toyota production mode in Japan in the "International Automobile Project - IMVP" research.
The IMVP research report The Machine That changed the world argues that The manufacturing industry is changing from mass production to lean production. Lean production not only has a great impact on manufacturing industry, but also on human society. This impact is mainly reflected in:
◆ The arrival of the era of diversified consumption of industrial products
◆ With the loss of charm in the industrial era, the network enterprises with plane structure begin to form
◆ Manpower is not the cause of quality loss, but the most important resource
◆ It is not enough to just face the market. It is also important to respond to the market quickly and meet customer needs quickly. It is more important to explore, create and lead needs
◆ It is not enough to satisfy shareholders, and it is the business goal to satisfy customers, shareholders and employees
The definition of lean production by MIT is to eliminate waste in all aspects such as customer relationship, product design, supply network and factory management. Its goal is to efficiently and economically produce high-quality products with the least personnel, the lowest inventory and the shortest time, and make the fastest response to customer needs.
The basic principles of lean production can be summarized as follows:
Focus on "people" - respect people and give full play to their subjective initiative. Organize workers and take collective responsibility for products. Once problems occur in the production line, each worker has the right to stop the production line to analyze and solve problems.
Take "simplification" as a means to simplify the organizational structure of the enterprise, simplify the product development process, simplify the manufacturing process of parts and components, and simplify the product structure. In short, simplify all unnecessary work and eliminate all waste.
Take "perfection" as the ultimate goal - continuous improvement and pursuit of perfection. In Toyota's production, it is required to flow from the previous process to the subsequent process with a 100% pass rate, and no unqualified products from any intermediate ring cutting are allowed to flow into the subsequent process.