Lean manufacturing, lean enterprise, or lean production, often simply, "Lean," is a production practice that considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. Working from the perspective of the customer who consumes a product or service, "value" is defined as any action or process that a customer would be willing to pay for.
Essentially, lean is centered on preserving value with less work. Lean manufacturing is a management philosophy derived mostly from the Toyota Production System (TPS). TPS is renowned for its focus on reduction of the seven wastes to improve overall customer value, but there are varying perspectives on how this is best achieved.
Lean manufacturing is a variation on the theme of efficiency based optimising flow. It is designed toward increasing efficiency, decreasing waste and questioning every aspect of the product/service delivery model.
The goal of lean becomes the creation and maintenance of a production system which runs repetitively , day after day, in a stable, edictable fashion.
TOP Q MANAGEMENT SERVICES have advised the likes of:
- Jaguar Cars, Castle Bromwich and Halewood. At Halewood, TOP Q was a key player in managing the transition from 'traditional' Ford manufacturing - Escort, to Lean Jaguar Production System for the X-Type.
- Ford Motor Copmpany, Dagenham and Brigend. TOP Q assisted the implementation of the Fprd Production System (FPS) to three Engine launches- Sigma, Puma and Lion.
- Kawasaki Heavy Engineering, Plymouth. TOP Q assisted this plant implement a Lean System based upon the Kawasaki Production System - KPS.