Are you looking for: “Improved production, reduced waste, empowered workforce, reduced stock, more space, committed suppliers and – as never before – more profit!” This is not far-fetched hype. These are exactly the improvements that your organisation could reap through the deployment of lean manufacturing. This strategy seeks to produce a high level of throughput with a minimum of inventory in the manufacturing industry as well as the service industry.

The ultimate aim of this tool is to completely eliminate waste from the process. In a lean enterprise, the aim of eliminating waste is extended to all the other companies involved in the supply of a product to a customer. It is often argued that eliminating waste is the greatest potential source of improvement in corporate performance and customer service.

Lean manufacturing is a holistic approach that enables process improvement and improves business profitability. Many businesses carry an unnecessary burden of waste. For organisations working in today’s harsh economic environment, lean manufacturing could make the difference between success and complete failure.

Analyzing business processes under lean manufacturing aims at discovering flaws in the system and helps to identify non-value adding elements i.e. waste, such as activities, steps, physical resources like environment and equipment, soft resources, competency and experience. Activities can thus be categorized into 3 types: Those that are value adding; those that add no value but are necessary; those that add no value and are avoidable.

There are 7 forms of waste, which are any activity that does not add value but only time and cost:

1. Waste of overproduction</B>