WHITEPAPER

5 Lean Manufacturing Principles

Modern manufacturing value streams are looking more like software development value streams – because increasingly, they
are. Manufacturers are hiring more and more software engineers as their product lines evolve to incorporate more software.
This is why manufacturers are turning to proven practices from Lean/Agile software development to achieve sustainability,
agility, and growth in a volatile market. These Lean manufacturing principles are helping organizations optimize their processes
so they can drastically reduce time to market, cut costs, and improve quality.

Lean Manufacturing Today

When Lean manufacturing began in the 1950s, it was Today, Lean manufacturing also refers to the optimization
designed to optimize the logistics, production lines, and of knowledge workers – using Lean principles to work
use of raw materials in manufacturing value streams. Lean smarter, innovate faster, and deliver more value to
manufacturing principles were focused on eliminating customers. By providing a structure to keep teams focused
waste, cutting costs, and improving overall efficiency on on efficiency and flow, these Lean manufacturing principles
the shop floor. are not only making teams more productive, they’re also
making manufacturing companies more attractive places
to work for talented engineers.
The Principles of Lean Manufacturing
Eliminate Waste
of delay can be measured in millions of dollars per day,
In Lean, waste refers to any activity, product, service, improving flow can make a drastic impact on the bottom
etc. that does not add value to the customer. In Lean line.
manufacturing, most of the waste comes from inefficiency
– it’s the excessive time, energy, labor, and money spent A tangible and effective way to deliver faster is to
developing products that don’t meet market demands. All implement WIP, or work-in-process, limits. WIP limits are
of this process waste results in a more expensive and lower fixed constraints that enable teams to stay focused on their
quality product for the customer. top priorities. Instead of spreading their attention, energy,
and time across hundreds of things at once, WIP limits
Eliminating waste across the value stream, instead of at encourage teams to focus on a handful of products at
isolated points, helps manufacturers create processes once and deliver them as quickly as possible.
that require less human effort, less space, less capital,
and less time to deliver products and services that cost This means that your talented employees can dive deeper
less and have fewer defects. In fact, industry trends show and add more value to the tasks at hand, which can
that companies adopting Lean manufacturing principles improve job satisfaction and boost employee retention
are developing products by up to six months faster and rates. This is especially important in an industry with an
staying 35% closer to products’ target costs, than their aging workforce and steep competition from the tech
competitors. industry for top talent.

Practice Iterative Development

Iterative development is a hallmark of Lean software

development and another key Lean manufacturing
principle. Lean development is based on this concept:
Build a simple solution, put it in front of customers,
enhance incrementally based on customer feedback.
Testing concepts before making greater investments in
raw materials, equipment, etc. can save manufacturers
millions of dollars and allow them to provide more value
to customers, who no longer have to incur the cost of a
Deliver Fast by Managing Flow lengthy and costly development cycle.

Manufacturers have notoriously long design and Historically, iterative development has been difficult for
production cycles, which equate to huge cost of delay manufacturers to do at scale – but Industry 4.0 trends like
and a crippling lack of agility. Some of this is due to the the Internet of Things, additive manufacturing, digital
complexity of products or the liability involved, especially twins, and digital factories are enabling companies to
for auto or aerospace manufacturers. Some of it is due to a iterate at a lower cost and higher frequency.
lack of organizational focus – many manufacturers produce
hundreds of products, making it difficult to analyze
performance, or leverage feedback from customers to
make meaningful improvements.

A key Lean manufacturing principle is that in order to

deliver value quickly, companies must focus on managing
the flow of ideas, products, services, and improvement
efforts across their value streams. In an industry where cost

2
 Build Quality In Respect for People

Building quality and reliability into the design and An aging workforce and competition for top talent from tech
manufacturing process is the accepted norm (or at least, companies are forcing manufacturers to change their talent
goal) for manufacturers. For many companies, quality = management philosophies to nurture a culture of innovation.
safety, which means things have to work right the first
time. Generally, the approach to ensuring quality is to test Top engineering candidates are seeking work experience
defects out – to run rigorous tests to ensure that quality that is as stimulating, engaging, challenging, and enriching as
meets a certain pre-defined standard. the tech-enabled world they live in. They know they can get
a high salary, good benefits, and startup-y perks anywhere
Lean reverse-engineers this by encouraging organizations – what they really crave is to do meaningful work in a forward-
to build quality into the manufacturing process, providing thinking organization that is making a difference in the world.
unlimited opportunities to learn and add value to the
customer. In recent decades, many Lean development Embracing the Lean concept
teams have found success by applying the following Lean of respect for people, as
development tools to build quality into their work. In Lean many tech companies have
development, quality is everyone’s job – not just QA’s. done, could be key to fulfilling
this lofty vision. In this case,
Here are some examples of this Lean manufacturing respect for people means that
principle at work: organizations do everything
they can to create value for
• Pair programming: Avoiding quality issues by both prospective and existing
combining the skills and experience of two developers employees. This means finding ways to attract and retain
instead of one young talent by adding value to their experience. It also
means supporting existing employees through cultural
• Test-driven development: Writing criteria for a product/ adjustment.
feature/part before creating it to ensure it meets
business requirements For engineers who have spent their careers in traditional
manufacturing cultures, embracing a culture of innovation
• Incremental development and constant feedback will require a new set of social skills – including open
collaboration, a free-flowing exchange of ideas, and an
• Minimize wait states: Reducing context switching, overall increase in empathy and flexibility. Practicing respect
knowledge gaps, and lack of focus for people will mean creating an environment where
employees of all generations can find room to learn, adapt,
• Automation: Automate any tedious, manual process or and grow in their careers. Of all the Lean manufacturing
any process prone to human error. principles, respect for people might be most difficult to
sustainably implement because of the cultural shift required,
but the benefits far outweigh the effort.

Get Started with Lean Manufacturing

Whether you’re working in product design and development or on the shop floor, applying the principles of Lean
manufacturing starts the same way – with five key steps and a few time-honored tools.

Learn how to implement Lean manufacturing at your organization at

Planview.com/resources/articles/lean-manufacturing/

WP023LTREN © 2020 PLANVIEW, INC., ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.