The concept of lean manufacturing has been introduced at Russian enterprises not so long ago, in comparison with foreign countries, where the Kaizen philosophy began to be applied in the 1950s. A decade ago, only a third of Russian industrial enterprises were interested in optimizing production. Now the construction of efficient production systems, in addition to discrete industrial production and consulting, is used not only by large, but also medium-sized companies in many sectors of the economy.
The progenitors of the lean manufacturing system are the auto giants Ford and Toyota. Among foreign companies that successfully apply the principles of Lean production, such as Nike, Textron, Parker, Intel. The beginning of the active use of Lean technologies in our country is considered 2006, when the First Russian Lean Forum took place. The pioneers in the creation of domestic lean production systems are our famous automobile manufacturers - GAZ and KAMAZ. Rusal, Rosatom, Eurochem, TVEL, Sberbank and many others are leading among the companies using Lean optimization systems and methods.
The implementation of lean manufacturing logistics at Russian enterprises has state support and is regulated by key standards: GOSTs numbered R 57522-2017, R 57523-2017, R 57524-2017, as well as industry recommendations approved by the order of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
The term "Lean manufacturing" or LIN is a semantic translation of the English definitions "lean manufacturing", "lean production" and the transcription of their abbreviation LEAN.
Lean manufacturing is understood as an enterprise management system that allows you to improve the quality of work while reducing costs by reducing losses.
The English-Russian translation of the word lean is “skinny, lean, slender”. To become such, you need to lose excess fat. With regard to the production sphere, this means that it is necessary to get rid of losses, thereby reducing costs. Therefore, lean manufacturing is sometimes called lean.
Three concepts of LIN-production
The essence of Lean production was described by G. Ford, who said:.
In the Lean manufacturing system, two aspects are fundamental:
- It is necessary to involve every employee of the company in the optimization procedures.
- The enterprise should be maximally focused on the interests of the consumer.
Conceptually, the global production optimization system is based on three principles.
- Kaizen philosophy. These are management mechanisms based on the idea of continuous quality improvement and its operational and phased implementation. The Kaizen strategy is based on the statement that there is no limit to the improvement of production processes and every company, regardless of its competitiveness, needs to move forward.
- The Six Sigma concept is based on the fact that you can manage production using the principle of measurability of any data. Since production processes are measured, they can be monitored, and therefore improved, by analyzing, for example, key performance indicators KPIs. The concept is aimed at making all production processes predictable and predictable, improving existing ones and creating new optimization algorithms.
- Improving production efficiency, improving the quality of the manufactured product, while reducing costs - these are the tasks of the Lean Manufacturing system.
Taken together, these three concepts show how to incrementally and continuously improve the quality of production processes and the final product without incurring unnecessary costs.
Thus, radicalism in production management has been replaced by an integrated philosophy that uses the idealistic principles of liberal methods of company management and implements effective methodologies and tools for improving work.
Lean tools
Lean technologies are used at all stages of the enterprise's activities - from the initial design of production processes to the sale of products to the consumer.
The continuous optimization process is carried out using Lean tools:
- Total productive maintenance of equipment - TPM (Total Productive Maintenance).
- Fast changeover and equipment retooling "in one minute" and "one touch" - SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Die) and OTED (One Touch Exchange of Dies).
- Organization of a continuous material flow - CANBAN.
- Pull production - pull production.
- Value stream mapping - VSM (Value Stream Mapping).
- Materials management system "just in time" - JIT (Just-In-Time).
- Visual management and feedback system Andon.
- Work Execution Standardization - SOP Standard Operating Processes.
- The technology for creating an effective workplace - 5S or 5S –CANDO.
- Total quality management system - TQM (Total Quality Management).
Lean tools work in such a way that the improvement in the quality of work is maximized and evaluated at all stages and levels of production.
