What is Lean Manufacturing

Lean manufacturing or lean production, which is often known simply as "Lean", is the optimal way of producing goods through the removal of waste and implementing flow, as opposed to batch and queue. Lean manufacturing is a generic process management philosophy derived mostly from the Toyota Production System (TPS). It is renowned for its focus on reduction of the original Toyota seven wastes in order to improve overall customer value. For many, Lean is the set of "tools" that assist in the identification and steady elimination of waste (muda). As waste is eliminated quality improves while production time and cost are reduced. Examples of such "tools" are Value Stream Mapping , Five S, Kanban (pull systems), and poka-yoke (error-proofing).