LEAN

Think of a maintenance department as serving internal customers: the various departments

and workers in the company.

Lean is different from the traditional western, mass production model that relies on
economies of scale to create profits. The more you make the cheaper the product will
become, the greater the potential profit margin. It is based on predictions of customer needs,
or creating customer needs. It has difficulty dealing with unusual changes in demand.

Lean production responds to proven customer demand. Pull processing the customer pulls
production. In a mass system the producer pushes product onto the market, push processing.

LEAN REQUIRES:

building a long-term culture that focuses on continuous improvement

respect for workers and improving their training

Lean is a philosophy that focuses:

On meeting customer needs

On continuous, gradual improvement

On making continuously better products

On valuing the input of workers

On taking the long term view

On eliminating mistakes

On eliminating waste

Waste = using too many resources (materials, time, energy, space, money, human resources,
poor instructions)

WASTE:
overproduction
defects
unnecessary processing
waiting (wasting time)
wasting human time and talent
too many steps or moving around
excessive transportation
excessive inventory.
Lean production includes working with suppliers, sub contractors, and sellers to streamline
the whole production process. The goal is that production would flow smoothly avoiding
costly starts and stops.

Just in time produce only what is needed, when it is needed, and only in the quantity
needed. Production process must be flexible and respond quickly.

Lean inventory = just what you need where you need it

In mass production = just in case inventory. Extra supplies and products are stored just in
case they are needed.

LEAN PRINCIPLES

5S

Seiri (Sorting) Getting rid of anything that is not necessary, store or discard

Seiton (Straighten) workplace arranged for efficiency, clean orderly, limit movement or
effort required to locate parts and then transport parts.

Seiso (Shine) keep the place clean and neat so that the visual cues of problems can be noted
right away, daily activity

Seiketsu (Standardize) operations - what is to be done and who will do it, measurement of
quality work, make sure everyone knows the standards.

Shitsuke (Sustain) - discipline of working to standards, understand and obey, eliminate

unproductive habits, work to improve.

workers must want to work this way

uses workplace organization to improve production
therefore discipline & commitment are required.

Costs are lowered in a lean system by eliminating waste including non-value added
activities

Muda Waste

Overproduction = doing too much

Transportation movement of people, materials, information = job planning

Waiting for parts or decisions or other work to be done (wrench time versus think time)

Inventory only stock the parts or materials and supplies you need material supply process

Motion the doing of a task

Process simplification = a process outside of the flow of production

Defects the mass production system does inspection at the end of production to catch
defects before they are shipped. The problem is that the resources have already been spent
to make the waste product Try to prevent problems immediately, as they happen, then
prevent them from recurring. Inspections occur during production, at each stage of production
and workers are empowered to stop production to repair problems.

Safety prevents waste of human resources

Information need the right information at the right time (not too much, not too little, not too
late)

Principles

Pull processing (demand drives the work) in maintenance the demand is no (or very few)
breakdowns and no defects

Design and plan for quality

Eliminate waste

Continuous improvement

Flexibility

Long term relationships

Poka-yoke mistake proof determining the cause of problems and then removing the cause to
prevent further errors (root cause analysis)

Judgment errors finding problems after the process

Informative inspections analyzing data from inspections during the process

Source inspections inspection before the process begins to prevent errors.

Kaizen = continuous improvement is both a philosophy and a formal process with kaizen
meetings to solve problems