The Definitive Guide to Waste Management Strategies in Lean Manufacturing Process

The Practise of Lean Management process dates back to the late 1940s when Toyota created its operating system known as Toyota Production System (TPS). John Krafcik later popularised the term lean in 1988. Lean Manufacturing Process aims to increase productivity while eliminating waste in industrial system. Making difficulties evident, addressing problems and fixing problems are true goals of Lean production. I will try to explain it with an example — A person is said to be lean if they are slim but appear healthy and robust. Which means he/she has muscles but no fats. Similarly, while performing the lean manufacturing process the firm or organisation focus on the muscles (which is value added activity) and eliminate the fats (which is non-value-added activity).

Originating from manufacturing sector, the technique is now successfully used across industries and domains as a management technique. The core principle of lean business technique is waste reduction by minimising or eliminating anything that does not add value to the customers. For example — Peter went out with his friends to eat burger and the burger which previously costs dollar 10 is now sold at dollar 20. Peter anyway chooses to order the burger and notice that there is absolutely no change in size, shape and ingredients even the infrastructure was same, asking about the same he was told by the shop owners that they hired MBA graduate as managers and replaced the staff with more qualified people which lead to increase in cost of that burger. But do you think that it added value to the customer? An obvious answer is no. So mostly the customer will avoid buying the burger from that shop as it does not add value to him.

But how does anything can add value to the customer? Here is the approach through four ways:

1. Decrease in the cost by keeping performance same
2. Keeping cost same and increase in performance
3. Slightly increase in cost and increase in performance comparatively more than the cost
4. 1) Slightly increase in cost and increase in performance comparatively more than the cost

And all of the above approaches can be established only if proper waste management strategies are implemented by the firm or organisation so that value is added to the customers and the firm does not witness any loss. So, you might wonder, what are the proper waste management strategies that can be implemented in lean manufacturing process?

Sorting garbage into several categories is one of the first ways that lean manufacturing may assist in the elimination of waste. Traditional classifications of waste include flaws, extra processing, overproduction, waiting, inventory, moving, motion, and unutilized talent. Keeping in mind the various sorts of waste at work will help you identify areas for improvement so that issues can be resolved and waste can be reduced. The Lean manufacturing system won’t solve all the issues in the factory overnight, eliminating all waste. This set of tactics recognises that waste will always be present in workplaces. However, the objective is to gradually reduce that to zero.

By using a continuous improvement approach, the organisation will not only be made more efficient in the short term but also throughout the long term. Few of the waste management strategies are listed below:

1. Transport: Unnecessary transit of items within a factory line is the result of a number of issues, including a disorganised factory floor, intricate handling systems, high batch sizes, dispersed storage, and overproduction. All of these lead to unnecessary travel. Moving resources from one place to another is wasteful because it doesn’t add anything. Moving supplies requires paying employees, and maintaining vehicles is expensive. A bad floor plan might make operations farther apart, which can cause processing delays and high transportation expenses.
2. Excess Inventory: Until it is sold to the client, inventory costs the maker money. Storage space is needed for every finished good or material component while they are being sold off the shelf. Large inventory exacerbates the wastes of lean manufacturing by raising the possibility of transit damage and adding to transportation delays.
3. Motion: When human or mechanical actions are not as modest or straightforward as they could be, unnecessary motion results. Your engineer may need to bend over repeatedly during a shift to pick up heavy goods; this creates strain on their back and might be avoided by simply feeding those materials at waist-height as opposed to on the floor. All of this makes sense because even robots eventually deteriorate.
4. Waiting: A sloppy production timeline results in unsynchronized activity, causing waiting within the production process. Idle time occurs when interdependent procedures are not in synch. operators are kept waiting, or work slowly to accommodate slack cogs in the wheel.
5. Over production: Waste grows from overproduction! It happens when you produce more merchandise than what your customer needs. Due to unreasonably huge batch sizes and an inability to meet client demand, this results in storage issues. Lean manufacturing wastes can be reduced by streamlining your operations to satisfy consumer demand, which requires that goods be given directly to the client in a timely manner (and not kept).
6. Defects: The waste that is most obvious is that which is defective. Poka-yoke systems can reduce errors even though they can never be completely eradicated (processes that help equipment operators to avoid mistakes). This calls for detailed process documentation and standardised training to ensure that everyone adheres to a set of procedures that produces a consistent outcome.
7. Wasted talent: An employee’s skills aren’t being fully utilised if all they do is move supplies or equipment from one location to another (transportation). Non-utilized talent also refers to management’s disregard for machine operator feedback on ongoing quality improvement. In these ideas, management’s failure to engage talent is viewed as increasing the wastes of lean production.
8. Overprocessing: When tasks, activities, or materials are added to a product that does not satisfy the needs of the final consumer, overprocessing waste results. It is a step that is not necessary and only adds cost. Implement established procedures during 5S to avoid overprocessing waste. Develop standard operating procedures (SOP) for each workstation. A SOP for all workstations and shifts will enhance quality and lessen waste from overprocessing.

To conclude this by adopting waste strategy in lean manufacturing process, firm can improve their cost optimization. Other than that, your workforce is your business, therefore ensuring their productivity requires more than just constant supervision. They will be able to tell you about any issues on your production line from personal experience, so pay attention to them. Examining your current procedures and giving operators the freedom to help you organise the manufacturing floor are key to eliminating waste. I am of the opinion that lean manufacturing process is ageless and a lot of fundamentals of lean manufacturing process will never be fired even in 2022 or further years even after the onset of smart technology.