Learn what the Lean Methodology is, its origin and how to apply it in your company!

The highly competitive scenario is responsible for encouraging companies to achieve excellence. One way to do this is through the application of the Lean Methodology in organizations.

In a globalized economy, mistakes made can be fatal! Economic problems, increases in demanding customers, shorter deadlines and countless other variables are part of this.

Therefore, it is important that companies are aligned and apply the best methodologies that bring significant results by reducing waste and increasing working efficiency.

One of the best known is Lean Methodology. So, to learn more, continue with us and see:

• What’s the meaning of Lean Methodology?
• What’s Lean Methodology origin?
• Lean Methodology Principles and Objectives;
• Lean Methodology Applications;
• Start a Lean Journey! 

Good learning!

What’s the meaning of Lean Methodology?

Lean is a management philosophy. It works to bring excellence to operate processes, having as a reference the Toyota Production System.

This methodology works to use the minimum of resources, reducing or suppressing activities that do not add value. Through the identification of the 8 wastes proposed by it.

The identification, reduction or exclusion of these wastes aims to increase the activities that add value. In addition, it reduces activities that does not add value, too.

This aims to improve quality, costs and delivery of product or services offered by companies.

Importance of Lean Thinking

Lean method is a way of thinking about improvements that make the productive environment more organized and optimized. In this way, it is possible to implement process improvement.

However, to be successful in it, the implementation of Lean needs to share this mindset with the whole company.

It is not enough that only the project managers know the advantages of the Lean system. Team members also have the same need to understand the importance and know the lean tools.

Everyone has to row in the same direction in Lean Organizations. The continued learning bears good results in the future.

Lean Manufacturing from A to Z

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What’s Lean Methodology origin?

Lean originated in a post-war scenario in Japan, where the entire country had needs mainly in terms of production.

Companies bet on mass production to promote gains in scale to try to seek the economic reconstruction of the country. The main characteristic is the low variety of products.

But in some cases mass production was impossible, as it required large stockyards and high investment, such as the automobile industry.

Therefore, Toyotism was created to get a more efficient system. This means not wasting much and working with different products.

Lean Methodology Principles and Wastes

Principles

There are seven principles present in product development of this philosophy. Check them out below:

1. Improper processing

It is the main focus within the Lean Methodology. It is necessary to eliminate the 8 wastes that are present in the processes to increase production. We will see their descriptions later.

2. Strengthen the team

It is essential to show all employees how important they are and how they are crucial to the project and the company. Thus, it is possible to engage the team and increase productivity.

3. Amplify knowledge

In the same way that the incentive must be applied to the entire team, knowledge also needs to be shared. So that, everyone is aligned and aware of the concepts and methods that will be used.

4. Build quality

Quality is one of the main points within the Lean methodology. Despite being a focus, it ends up becoming a consequence of the other principles.

If there is discard of waste, processes reduction of time and added value in the activities, the result is quality.

5. Fast deliveries

Lean seeks to reduce Lead Time, that is, the time between the customer's order and its delivery.

At this point, it is important to check production bottlenecks. So that it is possible to solve them and consequently reach the end of the process faster.

6. Defer decisions

In this case, postponing decisions is linked to the flexibility of production, where changes can happen in the middle of the process.

Thus, there is no closure on just one alternative that cannot be changed.

7. Optimize the whole

With the help of everyone committed to improving each step, in a cohesive and general way, the long-awaited process optimization is achieved.

In this way, it is possible for production to run smoothly and efficiently.

Wastes

Regardless of the application, Lean is totally focused on execution, reducing or eliminating waste in all possible stages and sectors.

In your business or within the company where you work, resources can certainly be found that are not well used, that is, wasted.

Any resource that does not add value to the final product can be placed in one of the eight types of waste:

Transport 

The transport of materials, information and people does not add direct value to the customer, but it is often necessary. Therefore, not being of extreme importance, it should be reduced to the maximum.

Inventory

Stock up on parts, finished products or even raw materials beyond what you need! Inventory in quantities greater than necessary is idle money.

Motion

It means a good organization of the layout in the work area. This places the machines, tools and essential equipment close by, avoids movement and consequently unnecessary loss of time.

Waiting

The production flow must always be aligned, not only the operation of the machines but also the employees. There are no stop moments out of the planned ones.

Over Production

The focus should be on quality and more flexible processes, not quantity, with more output of certain materials than necessary.

Over Processing

There are no standard processes, excess steps that are not cost effective, reworks and features that do not meet customer needs.

Defects 

If the entire process has already been done, redoing it means wasting money, material and time! Quality control must accompany each step to avoid this waste as soon as possible.

Not used talent

Often, the knowledge and learning of the team is not taken into account by managers. It is necessary to carry out an evaluation of the employee's profile to know which activity he will produce more with.

Lean Methodology Applications

The principles presented by the Lean Methodology can be suitable in many applications. Check now:

Lean Manufacturing

Lean Manufacturing is an excellence strategy to operate processes based on the Toyota Production System.

Within an organization, Lean seeks to use the minimum of resources, reducing or even cutting out activities that do not add value. This happens through the identification of waste, aiming to improve the use of quality, cost and delivery indicators.

Lean Office

The Lean Office uses the concepts of the Lean Methodology in the office environment or administrative areas of a company.

Therefore, it no longer applies to manufacturing and physical activities, in which case the value stream becomes the information flow.

Lean Construction

In the case of Lean Construction, the application of Lean takes place in civil construction. There, the factory floor is replaced by the construction site.

However, this workplace is constantly changing, so you need to adapt lean thinking to these.

Lean Construction seeks the speed of work delivery of the work, the costs and the losses reduction.

Lean Healthcare

The Lean philosophy is applied here in the health area. It uses the concepts to improve patient care, reduce waste and seek continuous improvement of all employees who participate in the process.

In addition, Lean Healthcare also assists in the organization and administration of nursing homes.

Lean Startup

The Lean Startup seeks a more comprehensive application of the Lean philosophy, applying its tools and concepts in the process.

Sales tactics are optimized in this application, where MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is also widely used.

In this case, waste reduction revolves around customer development, investing time in real customers and minimizing false assumptions.

Lean Logistics

The objective of Lean Logistics is to discard the waste that appears in logistics operations and consequently reduce costs.

One of the Lean tools that help the production process is the Value Stream Map. This software development points out to the manager which activities add value to the operation.

Start a Lean Journey!

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