Christian HOHMANN

Depuis 1998 - 2024 26 ans déjà !

  • Augmenter la taille
  • Taille par défaut
  • Diminuer la taille

Lean and Industry 4.0

Envoyer

Future processes will embed more technology and may become smarter, but they’ll remain processes. This trivial reminder is a hint for sustainability of Lean Thinking, Lean methods and tools. All Lean helped to improve so far remains valid in an environment richer of technologies and maybe poorer of manpower:

  • Value creation for customers
  • Lead time reduction
  • Value added time maximization
  • One piece flow
  • Inventory minimization
  • First Pass Yield
  • Waste elimination
  • Continuous improvement
  • Etc

What will change is anticipation, front loading Lean to the very early stages of a project, instead of trying to fix broken processes afterwards, when all is said and done, already decided and in place.

Much attention should therefore be paid embedding Lean in design and development, to Lean Engineering. Design For Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) will become even more necessary that fewer workers should be available to salvage poor product or process design or fix broken processes.

Furthermore, in the very early stages of design the most important decisions are taken, those choices and parameters that define future performances of the product and all processes for manufacturing, distribution, servicing and recycling.

Past experience learnt us that those decisions and choices may not be challenged afterwards, hence the importance of proactive and anticipated front loading of lessons learnt and Lean best practices.

The dawn of Industry 4.0 will not change the nature of these needs but will provide new opportunities for Lean application. Moreover Industry 4.0 will not change that much because technologies will be available to all competitors and differentiation can only be achieved with better offers and better use of resources.

Once efficient processes in place, random events and changes will continue to “plague” operations, bringing new occasions to use Lean tools and techniques.



Mise à jour le Samedi, 04 Janvier 2014 15:42