What is the difference between lean production and traditional production?

Thread Content

　　What is the difference between lean production and traditional production? The main differences between lean production and traditional production methods lie in: changing the approaches to quality control; eliminating (reducing) various buffers; increasing employees’ sense of participation and responsibility; training employees and communicating with them; using automation only where it is necessary; and adopting a lean organizational structure. 　　The characteristic of lean production is a comprehensive philosophical system centered on maximizing the inherent capabilities of a company’s employees, partner manufacturers, and assets. This system requires the creation of an environment for solving problems and continuous improvement thereof, demanding that every aspect be of the highest quality; these aspects break through traditional functional boundaries. 　　The main characteristics of the lean production approach are: (1) Quality – identifying, correcting, and solving problems; (2) Flexibility – small batch sizes and single-piece flow; (3) Time to market – minimizing development time; (4) Product diversity – shortening product cycles and reducing the impact of economies of scale; (5) Efficiency – improving productivity and reducing waste; (6) Adaptability – standardized components and coordinated cooperation; (7) Continuous improvement – ongoing enhancement. 　　Features: Pull-based just-in-time production. Production starts from the needs of the end users. Emphasis is placed on balancing logistics, with the goal of achieving zero inventory; parts completed in one processing stage must be able to proceed immediately to the next stage. 　　Organizing production lines relies on a system called Kanban. That is, the kanban conveys information about the backward demand for the next stage (the form of the kanban is not important; what matters is its ability to transmit information). The rhythm in production can be controlled through human intervention, but the focus is on maintaining a balanced flow in production (for each process step, this means ensuring timely supply to the subsequent steps). Due to the pull-based production system, planning and scheduling in production are essentially carried out by each individual production unit; a centralized planning approach is not used formally. However, coordination among the production units is extremely necessary during the operation process. Total Quality Management emphasizes that quality is achieved through production rather than through inspection, with quality control during the production process ensuring the final quality. Quality inspection and control are carried out at every stage of the production process. The focus is on fostering a quality awareness among every employee, with attention paid to quality inspection and control at each stage of the production process to ensure that quality issues are detected promptly. If any quality problems are identified during production, production can be stopped immediately, as appropriate, until the issues are resolved, thereby preventing unnecessary processing of defective products. 　　Regarding the quality issues that arise, relevant technical and production staff are generally organized into a team to work together and resolve them as quickly as possible. Team work method Team work method (Team work). Each employee, in their work, is not merely carrying out orders from their superiors. More importantly, it involves active participation in making decisions and assisting with decision-making. The principles for organizing teams are not based solely on administrative structures, but rather primarily on business relationships. Team members emphasize the importance of having multiple skills, requiring a decent level of familiarity with the work of other team members to ensure smooth coordination of tasks. The assessment of team members’ work performance is influenced by internal team evaluations. (This is closely related to Japan’s unique personnel system.) The basic atmosphere in team work is trust, with a focus on long-term supervision and control rather than auditing every step of the work, thereby improving efficiency. The organization of teams is dynamic; different teams are formed for various tasks, and the same person may belong to different teams. 　　Concurrent Engineering Concurrent Engineering (Concurrent Engineering). During the product’s design and development phase, conceptual design, structural design, process design, and final requirements are integrated to ensure that the product is completed at the fastest possible speed with the desired quality. All tasks are carried out by the relevant project team. Within the process, team members arrange their own tasks, but they can provide feedback regularly or at any time and coordinate solutions to any issues that arise. Feedback and coordination throughout the project are facilitated by appropriate information system tools. By utilizing modern CIM technology, it facilitates the parallelization of project processes during the design and development of products.