Lean production is the system of simple actions aimed at optimization of business processes of a company, effectiveness improvement, lowering of expenses. Lean production technologies give really positive results and they are necessary for enterprises. This article describes these technologies and steps to improvement of enterprise effectiveness in logistic departments.
Nowadays there are a lot of enterprises which choose lean management which by means of organizational measures help to enlarge labor effectiveness from 20 up to 400% during a year. Having used only one tool of lean production, you will be able to improve effectiveness of your company on 30% for two years.
5 principles of lean production which can help to improve company effectiveness
The aim of lean management is to produce appropriate amount of really actual goods without any excess amount of products in warehouses. It is very important to avoid activities which do not add value to a product. These activities can be keeping of unnecessary goods, excess processing and long term displacement of products inside a warehouse. There are some ideas which will be helpful for companies which want to choose the strategy of lean management, want to have only optimal business processes. Actions described below allow enterprises to lower personnel rotation, improve ergonomic aspects of working process and to improve its safety.
- Weight checking. One of ways to eliminate losses in logistics is weight checking. It helps to avoid mistakes before an order is sent to customers, which lowers the number of complaints. So, if actual weight of an order doesn’t respond a calculated weight of it, it is sent to revision and to extra case picking if needed.
- Conveyor system for packing waste. A conveyor can be laid through all areas of order picking and it automatically delivers packing waste to pressing area. This optimizes business processes of packing waste turnover and lowers the volume of paper dust. As a result, the level of pollution is reduced and equipment breaks down less frequently.
- Pick by light. Products are packed by means of pick by light system. This system is aimed at picking of orders on workstations. There’s an indicator panel located under the picking slot. When an indicator is flashed, an employee takes a product from a slot and puts it into a box. The box is moving along a conveyor line. After it, an employee pushes a button, confirming implementation of the procedure. Implementation of pick by light system helps to optimize business processes of order picking up to 50%.
- Work effectiveness monitor. It depicts the speed of order picking of the whole line and certain stations. Using a monitor, you will be able to assess work productiveness of each employee and induce a positive competition between employees.
- One of the most important factors of business process optimization and principles of lean management is personnel motivation. Employees should be involved into the process of improvement and effectiveness enlargement.