The effectiveness of implementing lean manufacturing techniques

Abstract

Lean manufacturing is a set of techniques and tools for process improvement. It was developed by Motorola in 1986, coinciding with the Japanese asset price bubble which is reflected in its terminology. Jack Welch made it central to his business strategy at General Electric in 1995. Today, it is used in many industrial sectors. The term "lean manufacturing" comes from statistics and is used in statistical quality control, which evaluates process capability. Originally, it referred to the ability of manufacturing processes to produce a very high proportion of output within specification. Processes that operate with "lean manufacturing quality" over the short term are assumed to produce long-term defect levels below 3.4 defects per million opportunities (DPMO). The primary objective is to study the effectiveness of implementing lean manufacturing techniques and to identify and analyze any related issues and industrial common challenges or problems in lean manufacturing implementation. In this study Descriptive Research design is used. In the case of multiple choice questions the responses are categorized based on the nature and percentage, and is calculated for each category. To find the percentage of the responses in each category Percentage Analysis is used. The percentage is calculated by dividing the number of responses by the total number of respondents. Convenience sampling method has been used in the research work. A well-structured questionnaire have been used to collect the responses from employees. Numerous findings has been derived from this research has helped to provide few suggestions to improve the effectiveness of lean manufacturing techniques.