Lean manufacturing may seem like something of a buzzword, but in practice that impression couldn’t be farther from the truth.
At its core, the term simply refers to the optimization of your manufacturing processes in a way that eliminates as much waste as possible, all while making sure that you’re delivering the maximum amount of value to your customers at all times.
All told, lean manufacturing is absolutely an achievable goal – and getting to that point is a lot easier than you might think. OEE (overall equipment effectiveness) also plays a significant role in it. It simply requires you to keep a few key things in mind.
Why Lean Manufacturing Matters: An Overview
As stated, the major benefit of lean manufacturing comes from how it helps you eliminate as much waste as possible from your manufacturing processes. This almost immediately leads to a significant increase in quality performance – meaning that you’re dealing with fewer instances of defects and necessary reworks of products, both in-house and at the customer level.
In addition to helping you improve the total amount of time that you’re manufacturing quality products, this also helps to dramatically improve the quality of the customer experience you’re able to offer – which in and of itself may be the most important benefit of all.
Lean manufacturing best practices also lead to fewer machine and process breakdowns, which can also save your organization a significant amount of money. Indeed, this is one of the major areas where OEE makes such a big impression. You can’t improve what you’re not measuring and if you know at a moment’s notice which of your manufacturing processes are working and which ones aren’t, you can double down on the former and get rid of the latter as soon as the opportunity becomes available to you.
Of course, lean manufacturing also has significant financial impacts on your business – with lower levels of inventory being chief among them. If you know how much of your manufacturing processes are creating A) quality parts, B) as quickly as possible, and C) with as little stop time as possible, you know exactly how much inventory you need to keep on hand at a given moment. This in turn creates lower levels of stock turnover, and it also frees up valuable space in areas like warehouses for you to use for those matters that truly need it.
In the end, OEE and lean manufacturing aren’t two different concepts at all – they’re two sides of the exact same coin. By paying attention to your OEE score, you begin to embrace the best practices of lean manufacturing with open arms. Not only does this lead to improve employee morale and involvement, but it almost always leads to improved supplier relations, too.
Before you know it, this begins to segue into instances of increased business by way of higher profits – which in and of itself may be the most important benefit of all.
