LEAN

Lean – aka Toyota Production System (TPS) – was invented by Taiichi Ohno and evolved at Toyota over the last 50 years
Its goal is to eliminate waste and continuously improve productivity in every area of work, including customer relations, product design, supplier networks and factory management

Wikipedia says Lean aims ‘to produce less low-value human effort, less inventory, less time to develop products, and become highly responsive to customer demand while producing top quality, error-proofed products in the most efficient and economical manner’

Lean seeks to improve the flow (smoothness) of work by production levelling:
- UK car manufacturers used to forecast demand, make to stock, sell what was in stock and then deliver as best they could
- By contrast, Toyota total up their actual demand, turn their output volume controls to suit, meet all the variety demanded and deliver fast
However, Lean practitioners tend to focus on cutting specific task times and costs – and that could even increase overall costs – if many of those tasks are unnecessary for the customer, cutting their costs by 10% say would make little sense
Hence, always focus on why and how you do things for customers, and the Order Cycle Time (OCT) – big cost reductions tend to follow when you improve things for customers first

‘Adventuring out to Sea’ – An aide memoire for amateur sailors who are mostly land bound

‘Productivity Knowhow’ – the basic knowhow managers need for big productivity improvements

‘Productivity Postbag’ – a selection of views on productivity matters from business heavyweights

‘Productivity Quotes’ – over 1,000 quotes from the ‘great and good’, some amusing, some controversial