In short, WCM is a general methodology that can be applied to a company’s entire business model, whereas lean manufacturing is a specific approach used to cut waste in the production line.
To start with, lean manufacturing gained recognition in the early 20th century after large-scale assembly line manufacturing become prevalent. Then in the 1950s, Shigeo Shingo and Taiichi Ohno of the Toyota Motor Corporation created the Toyota Production System, which eventually became the foundation of lean production in America.
Among its benefits, lean manufacturing helps shorten delivery time and quicken responses to consumer inquires. This speed can be accomplished by removing waste from the production process, which is defined as any manufacturing process that doesn’t bring value to the customer.
Examples of waste may include:
- Waiting on workers or idle machinery
- Surplus of goods and limited demand
- Flaws that are too pricey to fix
- Unneeded transportation
- Applying needless features to a product
World class manufacturing is an organizational strategy for producing affordable, waste-free, and sustainable products on a consistent basis. It’s guided by three main principles, lean manufacturing being one of them:
- Employing lean manufacturing and just-in-time techniques to decrease production floor waste and cost. The two methods are used in tandem to guarantee items are developed to meet customer demand than in surplus. This can be done by eliminating any assembly line process that fails to benefit the customer.
- Incorporating total quality management to reduce the number of product flaws and improve consumer gratification. This approach is rooted in the idea that every employee is devoted to continuously cultivating manufacturing processes and developing high-quality items.
- Applying total productive maintenance (TPM) to troubleshoot and fix any operational failures that can lead to faulty equipment and machinery.
Learn more about world class manufacturing best practices and techniques.
To summarize, WCM utilizes different techniques to ensure product quality and reasonably priced goods while lean manufacturing is rooted in the Toyota Production System to remove production processes that don’t bring value to the consumer.
