Manufacturing Lean Improvement

Lean thinking has its roots in manufacturing. It is in manufacturing that Total Quality Management, Training Within Industry, Ford’s Flow manufacturing, and Toyota’s Toyota Production System all started and developed into what is today Lean Manufacturing.

It is important to understand that these principles and methodologies were developed to address a particular set of problems at a particular time. In order to create a Lean transformation, it is not enough to copy the tools—we must embed the thinking and the principles into the culture, and some of the old principles must be abandoned.

It is on the shop floor that many organizations first learn how to create Flow by eliminating waste. To accomplish this in a sustainable way, the work must be done with the people who work in the processes, not to the people. LTG also has its roots in helping improve manufacturing operations.