LEAN IMPLEMENTATION IN DISCRETE AND CONTINUOUS PROCESSINDUSTRIES - A COMPARISON

Abstract

As the competition is getting fierce and profit margins getting wafer thin day by day companies can no longer afford to waste their resources instead there is a need to judicially optimize their use. So, there is a trend to go lean. Lean – A concept that originated in Toyota. And patronized by other Japanese companies has become the need of the hour. One of the key benefits of lean is that its scope is wide enough to include the entire supply chain of any product. The aim of lean is to eliminate any kind of waste (or MUDA in Japanese) and to give the enterprise better reflexes so that it can react immediately to the changing customer needs. Lean (also known as JIT) started with Toyota which has one piece flow but with times LEAN has evolved and adapted to different kinds of manufacturing environment whether its discreet manufacturing (e.g. Auto-Component industry) or continuous process manufacturing (Pharmaceuticals, Steel, Plastics, etc.). Although, the process and discrete indust...