When many people think of lean manufacturing, it is assumed that means doing less of what you need to do the job
. But what really is trying to achieve is getting more with less. This is not to take shortcuts and make the road working environment, it is cutting waste and still getting the job done right.
No matter what you are doing something at work or at home in their daily lives, there is sure to be waste in the process. Waste could be defined as anything that is not directly necessary for the job. It may come in the form of lost motion, having to walk very far from their jobs in order to reach the next part you need.
It could also be wasted handling, having to spend a product repeatedly to accomplish a task. It might be having too much inventory and having to pay to store all or circumvent it because you're afraid you'll miss something. And all these other waste have in common is that they are inefficient, you waste in your workforce because people are there waiting to move things or make things happen on too many times or can not find anything because of the mess. Here are some of the wastes that are easily identifiable easiest and easy to remove. But once you get rid of the easy things to see, you can go after the more complex issues such as your shipping process or the supply line.
These are incredibly complex processes which will encompass multiple departments and many workers. They need to be identified and a clear objective put in place. They also require a lot of effort and follow through. What good is making any changes if you can't follow through on the process and then keep track of the progress?
This takes time and effort, and many individuals working together in order to get the job done. It takes planning and putting a team together from all the different areas of the business and with different objectives in mind. When people different come together to solve a problem and they all start from a different point of view, they come up with many different ideas to solve the same problem.