Lean Manufacturing Tools

Lean manufacturing tools help businesses solve problems, measure performance, and optimize work processes. They are meant to eliminate waste, simplify methods, create effective workflow and improve quality control.

Whether you’re manufacturing a product or boosting worker productivity, having the right tools can help. We’ll explain more about lean manufacturing tools as we answer the following questions:

What tools are commonly used in lean manufacturing?
How can lean tools improve production?
What’s the future of lean manufacturing tools?

What tools are commonly used in lean manufacturing?

Some lean manufacturing tools help manage employees while others provide guidelines for solving problems. There are various tools that can help companies perform these operations, so instead of listing specific products, we’ve assembled a list of important tasks that can be automated.

Some examples of tasks include:

Plan Do Check Act: This tool is a helpful procedure for identifying and solving problems quickly. It’s important to plan for a specific goal, do the work the plan requires, check results and then act to fix undesirable results.
The Five Whys: This technique is based on asking “why” five times to detect the root of the problem and solve it.
Poka-Yoke: This technique (a Japanese term pronounced PO-ka yo-KAY) involves error proofing to eliminate product defects by preventing, correcting or shining light on human errors.
Six big losses: This tool is closely connected with total productive maintenance, a method focused on maintaining and improving manufacturing machinery to cut operational costs. The six big losses provide a great way to categorize equipment-based losses, which consist of unplanned stops, planned stops, small stops, slow cycles, production rejects and startup rejects.
Gemba: This tool means “the real place” in Japanese. It refers to the physical or digital place where work is conducted, from a shop floor to a manufacturing facility.
Jidoka: This tool translates to “intelligent automation” or “automation with a human touch” in Japanese. It’s a process of maintaining quality control in a semi-automated environment.
Cellular manufacturing: This technique involves arranging workstations based on the parts they produce to cut travel time and increase feedback across stations.

How can lean tools improve production?

Lean tools help improve production and efficiency by getting the most out of each resource or process. In a nutshell, the goal of lean tools is to find better ways of doing things — from expending less effort and reducing time output to using less resources.

By improving production, fewer defective products are produced, less waste is created and costs are reduced. Reducing production times also helps reduce labor and facility costs per part.

What’s the future of lean manufacturing tools?

The future of lean manufacturing involves artificial intelligence and automation. AI strengthens connectivity between people, information and machines while helping manufacturers optimize their products and processes.

Automation is the future as companies improve how workers interact with technologies. AI has the potential to take productivity to the next level. Through self-learning, for example, AI can improve the quality, lead time and costs tied to product development.

Augmentir is the first AI-powered connected worker software suite that helps industrial companies use lean manufacturing to optimize the safety, quality and productivity of the industrial frontline workforce.

Learn more about how artificial intelligence is transforming lean manufacturing.

Interested in learning how Augmentir’s connected worker platform can help you implement Lean within your manufacturing operation? Get in touch with us for a free demo.