Lean Manufacturing in the Digital Era: Traditional Principles + Modern Technology

With a focus on maximizing value while minimizing waste, lean manufacturing has long been a vital tool in boosting production efficiency. In the digital era, modern technologies like manufacturing execution systems (MES) and the internet of things (IoT), have enabled manufacturers to take lean practices to a whole new level, allowing them to drive unprecedented productivity, waste reduction, and continuous optimization. In this article, we’ll examine several ways the latest technology is enhancing lean manufacturing practices.

Principles of Lean Manufacturing

Lean manufacturing is centered around five core principles: identifying value, mapping the value stream, creating flow, establishing pull, and pursuing continuous improvement.

Identify what creates value for your customers.

The first step in enhancing a product’s value is understanding what value means to your customers. In short, value from a lean perspective is everything the customer is willing to pay for. To understand this, it’s important to closely examine the product from the customer's perspective. Data analytics, such as those available in ERP and CRM software, are helping companies to better understand their customers’ wants and needs. When you make efforts to understand what your customers value, you learn what you need to know to take the next step of minimizing or eliminating activities that don’t contribute to creating that value.

Map the value stream.

Value stream mapping uses diagrams to conduct a detailed analysis of the entire production process, from raw materials to finished products. A value stream map details each step in material and information flows throughout the manufacturing process. Once you have this in place, you can use it to identify and eliminate waste—activities that don’t add value to the end product. Lean manufacturing recognizes seven types of waste, often abbreviated with the acronym TIMWOOD:

• Unnecessary transportation of resources
• Carrying excess inventory of products or materials
• Unnecessary movement of workers or machinery due to inefficient processes, creating delays, fatigue, risk of injury, and/or excess wear and tear on machines
• Time spent waiting due to delays or bottlenecks, also known as downtime
• Overproduction of products beyond what is needed
• Overprocessing products by taking steps that don’t add value for customers
• Defects that result in unusable products or necessitate extra steps to make the products usable

Create flow.

Creating flow means implementing smooth production processes that can continue without interruption. This is achieved by eliminating the types of waste identified through value stream mapping. Creating flow might include, for example, implementing production monitoring to reduce defects and equipment failures, optimizing worker and job scheduling to minimize downtime, and rearranging equipment and materials to reduce unnecessary movements.

Implement a pull system.

A pull system, also known as just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing, is a lean strategy that uses actual customer demand, rather than forecasts, to guide production. By producing goods only as they are needed, manufacturers eliminate excess inventory and its associated storage and transportation costs.

Pursue continuous improvement.

Lean manufacturing is not something that can be achieved with a one-time initiative. The concept of Kaizen, or continuous improvement, is a core principle in lean manufacturing. This means constantly looking for ways to further improve your production processes. Whether through small, incremental changes or revolutionary innovations, you want to always be pushing the boundary of waste reduction and value enhancement.

How Modern Technology Supports Lean Manufacturing

In the digital age, manufacturing execution systems play a crucial role in lean manufacturing. Combined with IoT technology, an MES provides comprehensive, real-time visibility into production and processes. Below are several ways modern solutions are helping manufacturers quickly identify and address the sources of waste.

• Real-time dashboards provide instant visibility into each machine on the production floor, allowing operators to optimize machine usage to promote seamless operations.
• An MES can track worker schedules and performance and combine this information with supply chain, demand, and materials data, helping managers to optimize labor scheduling and improve productivity.
• By monitoring the condition of equipment in real-time, MES systems can enable a predictive maintenance program. This allows manufacturers to conduct maintenance when it’s needed, eliminating wasted maintenance efforts, preventing unexpected breakdowns, reducing downtime, and extending equipment life.
• A 2023 study found that downtime costs manufacturers an average of $125,000 per hour. An MES can examine reports to identify the top causes of downtime and take proactive steps to eliminate them. 
• Scrap reporting features help identify and eliminate materials waste.
• Instant alerts and automatic notifications help catch errors, delays, and bottlenecks as early as possible, better enabling manufacturers to minimize waste.
• Process journals make it easy to track maintenance histories, equipment issues, and resolutions. By creating a detailed record of past problems and solutions, manufacturers are better enabled to continuously improve equipment care.
• An MES can be integrated with your ERP, breaking down data silos to unify business processes like supply chain management, inventory, and order processing. As a result, you can increase your plant’s agility to adapt to changing circumstances and facilitate JIT manufacturing.

The digital era provides manufacturers with unprecedented tools for implementing lean principles. Modern technologies like MES and the IoT provide new ways to optimize operations, eliminate sources of waste, and relentlessly pursue continuous improvement. With the proper application of the right technologies, manufacturers can improve efficiency while delivering more value to their customers.

SYSCON PlantStar provides real-time insight into a broad range of shop floor variables, giving manufacturers the data and analysis they need to continuously hone lean manufacturing practices. SYSCON PlantStar can also integrate with bar code scanning, label printers, robots, weigh scales and much more! You can learn more about MES functions, features, and integrations by viewing our MES 101 page, or subscribe to our blog for regular updates on our latest informative articles for manufacturers.