Lean Manufacturing is the set of tools and concepts that help in eliminating waste (a non-value added work) and create more value for the customers. It can be applied in different types of businesses such as manufacturing, distribution or services industries. This lean concept is mostly derived from the Toyota Production system which allows no room for buffer or surplus. Before learning on how to eliminate waste, it is necessary to know what the seven deadly waste are:

1. Over Production : produce too much and too soon for the next process

2. Waiting : unproductive/ idle time of the machine and operators

3. Motion : unnecessary movement to locate, pick up, and store items

4. Correction : re-work and repair product defects

5. Excess inventory : excess number of stock

6. Excess processing : creating unnecessary/ non-value adding work.

7. Excess transportation : the movement of products which do not add any value but instead will create more costs.

There are a few elements to adopt to create a lean process. As it is mentioned earlier lean means creating less or no waste in the process to reduce costs and increase customers’ satisfaction. These are some of the methods:

- Quality control; The idea is to produce a high quality product to ensure customer satisfactions. It is the concept of doing things right once only. It is important to give operators an empowerment to observe, act and fix any problems if there is a defect in one of the processes. The operators are obliged to become their own inspectors to inspect and ensure the output quality of their individual job station. A stop button should be provided for the operators to notify others or stop the production if there is a defect in one of the station so that problems can be fixed immediately.

- JIT Production (Just-In-Time); the idea is to keep the inventory low so that any defects can be located easily. The basic meaning of JIT is that the company will only produce the products when there is a customer order. To keep the inventory low. Thus, vendors often deliver their products several times a day to their customers.

- Kanban system; in Japanese Kanban means instruction card or sign. It is use as a signal to control the JIT flow in a company. This card or sign is acting as a kanban pull system

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