Introduction to Lean Waste and Lean Tools

Abstract

In the turbulent and complex business environments, many Indian SMEs are facing stiff competition in the domestic as well as in the global market from their multinational counterpart. The concept of lean has gained prominence due to the fact that the resource based competitive advantages are no longer sufficient in this economy. Hence, lean is no longer merely an option but rather a core necessity for engineering industries situated in any part of the globe, if they have to compete successfully. Lean Manufacturing (LM) which provides new opportunities to create and retain greater value from the employee of the industry based on their core business competencies. The challenge of capturing, organizing, and disseminating throughout the aggregate business unit is a huge responsibility of the top management. The success of any industry depends on how well it can manage its resources and translate in to action. The adoption of lean manufacturing through effective lean practices depends on interpretations of past experiences and present information resides in the industry. Generally, in an industry, some tangible and intangible factors exist in the form of non-value adding activities which hinder the smooth lean implementation are known as lean manufacturing barriers (LMBs).