•   Thursday, March 28, 2024
Technology

What tools and techniques are used in lean management?

Lean management is a concept of enterprise management that assumes its adaptation to the conditions of management prevailing on the market through appropriate organizational and functional transformations. The entire Lean Management concept places great emphasis on structural flexibility and the continuous improvement of the organisation through numerous training courses for staff and employees. This is an ideal concept that offers the possibility of restructuring. The areas of application of the Lean Management concept include production, procurement and sales, as well as management organisation.

There are also several basic techniques and tools used in lean management.

1) VSM in Polish - value stream mapping. It is a tool whose purpose is to map the flow of materials and information in the production process and to provide the customer with a given product or group of products.

2) 5S - this tool gives the opportunity to create a well-organised and orderly workplace.

3) TPM in Polish - total productive maintenance - thanks to that we have full technical efficiency and thus maximum access to machines and all equipment.

4) SMED - this tool makes it possible to shorten the changeovers of machines and production lines. This allows us to reduce the size of production batches, buffers and stocks. In this way, you can also optimise the use of your machines and quickly adapt your product range to changing demand.

5) Six Sigma - is a methodology that aims to improve quality and at the same time reduce costs with the use of statistical tools. This is mainly based on reducing process variability.

6) Kanban - a type of signals which gives authorisation or instructions for the process preceding the initiation of manufacturing or movement of products in the production process.

7) Hoshin kanri - consists in cascading strategic objectives to lower levels of organization by means of a plan. This plan includes measurable objectives, actions, deadlines and measures.

8) Visual management - consists in presenting clear and legible information about processes and thus the work should be much easier to do.

9) Standardized work - this is the development and implementation of procedures describing the simplest and most effective ways to perform a given speed.

10) Spaghetti diagram - it enables to capture and eliminate unnecessary movement of people and products in work processes.

These are a few basic tools, but not all of which are used in lean management. However, it is important to introduce them skillfully

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