25 Essential Lean Tools: Lean Tool What Is It? How Does It Help?
25 Essential Lean Tools: Lean Tool What Is It? How Does It Help?
25 Essential Lean Tools: Lean Tool What Is It? How Does It Help?
The following is a collection of 25 essential lean tools. Each tool is distilled into a simple description of what it is
and how it helps.
Lean Tool
5S
What Is It?
Andon
Bottleneck
Analysis
Continuous Flow
Heijunka (Level
Scheduling)
A form of production scheduling that purposely Reduces lead times (since each product or
manufactures in much smaller batches by
variant is manufactured more frequently) and
sequencing (mixing) product variants within the inventory (since batches are smaller).
same process.
Hoshin Kanri
(Policy
Deployment)
Align the goals of the company (Strategy), with Ensures that progress towards strategic goals
the plans of middle management (Tactics) and is consistent and thorough eliminating the
the work performed on the plant floor (Action). waste that comes from poor communication
and inconsistent direction.
Jidoka
(Autonomation)
Just-In-Time
(JIT)
Kaizen
(Continuous
Improvement)
Kanban (Pull
System)
A method of regulating the flow of goods both Eliminates waste from inventory and
within the factory and with outside suppliers
overproduction. Can eliminate the need for
and customers. Based on automatic
physical inventories (instead relying on signal
replenishment through signal cards that indicate cards to indicate when more goods need to be
when more goods are needed.
ordered).
KPI (Key
Performance
Indicator)
Muda (Waste)
Overall
Equipment
Effectiveness
(OEE)
Framework for measuring productivity loss for a Provides a benchmark/baseline and a means
given manufacturing process. Three categories to track progress in eliminating waste from a
of loss are tracked:
manufacturing process. 100% OEE means
perfect production (manufacturing only good
Do (implement plan)
Do (run experiment)
A problem solving methodology that focuses on Helps to ensure that a problem is truly
resolving the underlying problem instead of
eliminated by applying corrective action to the
applying quick fixes that only treat immediate root cause of the problem.
symptoms of the problem. A common approach
is to ask why five times each time moving a
step closer to discovering the true underlying
problem.
Single Minute
Reduce setup (changeover) time to less than 10 Enables manufacturing in smaller lots, reduces
Exchange of Die minutes. Techniques include:
inventory, and improves customer
(SMED)
responsiveness.
Breakdowns
Setup/Adjustments
Small Stops
Reduced Speed
Startup Rejects
Production Rejects
SMART Goals
Goals that are: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Helps to ensure that goals are effective.
Relevant, and Time-Specific.
Standardized
Work
Documented procedures for manufacturing that Eliminates waste by consistently applying best
capture best practices (including the time to
practices. Forms a baseline for future
complete each task). Must be living
improvement activities.
documentation that is easy to change.
Takt Time
The pace of production (e.g. manufacturing one Provides a simple, consistent and intuitive
piece every 34 seconds) that aligns production method of pacing production. Is easily
with customer demand. Calculated as Planned extended to provide an efficiency goal for the
Total Productive
Maintenance
(TPM)
Value Stream
Mapping
Visual Factory