Lean Management

Lean management is the reducing of wastes and costs in the production process.

Lean management means changes in atitudes, business culture and the production process.

Lean Production can be:

• JUST IN TIME (JIT)
• KAIZEN
• CELL PRODUCTION
• TIME BASED MANAGEMENT

JUST IN TIME means carefully scheduling the arrival of materials and components to the production process in small quantities as they are required.

This reduces the cost of stockholding and the space required

KAIZEN means continuous improvement.

It is a Japanese way of managing, and has now become popular in the Western World too.

It emphasises of getting things right the FIRST TIME rather than having wasteful rejects.

It entails a strong commitment from the workforce in order to draw ideas from everyone for small improvements and constantly looking for better ways to do things.

Involves splitting a production process into sizeable steps, each of which becomes the responsibility of a team of employees.