To remain competitive, manufacturers must utilize "lean manufacturing" — operating with maximum productivity and process efficiency, while generating quality products. Although establishing processes ...

Lean thinking originated with the Toyota Production System. Its success in streamlining existing automotive manufacturing processes led to the adaptation of those principles to other areas of business ...

“They need a conveyor,” said the guy on my left as we observed the assembly process. Operators walked back and forth from the assembly station to bring finished parts to the shelf and to get ...

Digital information technologies can help companies enhance their lean manufacturing strategies. Tim Stuart, founder and president at Visual Decisions Inc., used a FitBit to illustrate how. “FitBit ...

In today's manufacturing environment, assembly work is routinely characterized by short production cycles and constantly diminishing batch sizes, while the variety of product types and models ...

Shannon Karels, a senior operations manager, and Kathy Miller, a senior operations executive, use their collective experience to share knowledge about supply chain leadership and the journey to ...

Where now for lean? As globalisation and technology trends change the way manufacturing networks function and measure success, how is the sector’s favourite efficiency tool set and philosophy evolving ...

Developed in the 1950s as a means to survive and compete against the giants of the automotive sector, lean manufacturing helped Toyota evolve from a small-volume producer (with little capital) to ...

The history of lean may stretch back more than a century, but it’s as relevant today (and will be tomorrow) as it was when first conceived. Rather than replacing lean, digital technologies are helping ...

POST FALLS – About five years ago, CJ Buck picked up a fishing knife made in Taiwan, tested its blade and studied its craftsmanship. In spite of himself, the fourth-generation knife maker was ...

Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) that have adopted lean manufacturing practices have shown tremendous results in terms of empowering their workers to take independent decisions, ability to ...