All aspects of Lean

[printmonger]

I'm interested in it ALL. In this economy, only a fool would snub their nose at such information.

Thanks,
Mark D. Sharadin
The Pressroom
Ballston Spa, NY

[David Dodd]

Welcome to the forum, Mark. Are you just beginning to look at lean for your company, or are you already using some lean tools in your business? If you have any specific questions about lean, please feel free to ask? Over the next several days, I'll be posting very brief discussions of a few core lean concepts. I'm also writing a series of columns about lean for WhatTheyThink. Two of the columns have already appeared, and the rest will be running over the next few months.

[johnb]

From what I understand you cannot use "parts" of lean manufacturing it's the whole deal or nothing. Is this correct?
JohnB

[David Dodd]

John,

"Lean manufacturing" or "lean" refers to a group of principles, tools, and practices that are, in fact, related. The companies that have made the greatest progress in their lean transformation do view these principles, tools, and practices as components of a "system." For example, before lean was called lean, Toyota called it the "Toyota Production System." However, it is not true that a company must implement and use ALL of the classic lean tools and practices in order to gain benefits from lean. In fact, not all of the classic lean tools and practices are particularly useful in a printing company. But many are. For example, most printing companies will gain significant benefits from implementing a 5S program or a Total Productive Maintenance program. Most printing companies would also benefit from doing some value stream mapping and from using the "5 Whys" technique for problem solving. I would also stress that it is not necessary to implement all appropriate lean tools at the same time. I know this sounds like a cliche, but becoming lean is not a single event, it is a process. So you can benefit from using only a few lean tools, but, of course, the more lean you become, the greater the benefits.

[Emil Salmons]

Hello David,
Is there any books that I could purchase to better understand the principles of lean? I've been in printing thirty-two years, and lean has been my "work ethic" my entire career before it's been called lean. Now that lean is popular I would like to understand the termanology and expand my knowledge.
Thankyou
Emil

[Hopkins Printing]

Hello David,
Is there any books that I could purchase to better understand the principles of lean? I've been in printing thirty-two years, and lean has been my "work ethic" my entire career before it's been called lean. Now that lean is popular I would like to understand the termanology and expand my knowledge.
Thankyou
Emil

Hi Emil,

PIA/GATF Press has a book called, "Lean Printing: Pathway to Success" written by Kevin Cooper, Malcolm G. Keif, and Kenneth L. Macro, Jr.

Lots of good information!

Cheers,
Jon Morgan
Hopkins Printing

[marvin]

Hi Emil,

PIA/GATF Press has a book called, "Lean Printing: Pathway to Success" written by Kevin Cooper, Malcolm G. Keif, and Kenneth L. Macro, Jr.

Lots of good information!

Cheers,
Jon Morgan
Hopkins Printing

Oh, Keif and Macro were my professors at Poly. Glad to hear they're pushing Lean. When I attended it was a heavy emphasis on Deming's Total Quality Management, another quality system I really think highly of.

[David Dodd]

Hello David,
Is there any books that I could purchase to better understand the principles of lean? I've been in printing thirty-two years, and lean has been my "work ethic" my entire career before it's been called lean. Now that lean is popular I would like to understand the termanology and expand my knowledge.
Thankyou
Emil

Emil,

Thanks for your question. A few weeks ago, I did a keyword search at Amazon for "lean manufacturing" and my search identified almost 1,800 books and other published resources. Now, of course, not all of these resources were completely focused on lean, but there are easily hundreds of books about various aspects of lean.

I would highly recommend that you start with "Lean Thinking" by James Womack and Daniel Jones. Womack and Jones were two of the leaders of a major research effort at MIT called the International Motor Vehicle Program. That research effort culminated in the publication of a book titled "The Machine That Changed the World." This book not only coined the term "lean production," it was one of the first publications to really "introduce" lean to Western managers. In "Lean Thinking," provide a very good introduction to the core principles of lean, and they provide examples outside the automotive industry. I summarized the Womack/Jones lean framework in one of my lean-related columns at WhatTheyThink.

After you've finished "Lean Thinking," you can then turn to books about more specific lean topics. One good source of these books is Productivity Press (Lean Manufacturing | Productivity Press | Lean books| Lean Production | 5S | Six sigma | Toyota Production System).

I also need to add one note of caution. The vast majority of lean books and materials describe how lean is used by repetitive or "assembly-line" manufacturing firms. There are far fewer resources that describe how lean can be effectively used by custom manufacturing firms like printing companies. Don't be discouraged by this! Lean can provide huge benefits for most printing companies, but some of the tools and techniques of lean have to be adapted to fit the needs of printing companies.

Happy reading!