“Lean” -- not just a strategy just for manufacturing

 by Michael W. Van Belle, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of The High Companies

Lean is a continuous improvement (CI) philosophy and methodology more so than a strategy. The focus of lean is on eliminating wastes in an organization or process so that better results are obtained. The wastes, known by the Japanese word ‘Muda’, within a business that lean eliminates are:

• Defects

• Overproduction

• Waiting

• Transportation

• Inventory

• Motion

• Over Processing

Lean uses common techniques to help eliminate these wastes, such as Kanbans, setup-reductions, and 1-piece flow. While Lean is often a CI methodology started in the manufacturing and operations department in many companies, its applications can be used in just about any function or department.

At High Industries, our continuous improvement utilizes Lean mixed with other methodologies such as Six Sigma and Theory of Constraints. Together these methodologies allow us to improvements results by eliminating waste, reducing variation, and increasing capacity with minimized capital investment. More information on Lean and other CI methodologies is available at the following online articles:

"Types of waste targeted by lean methods"

"Lean six sigma cuts waste"

"Lean on these keys to success"