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Lean Manufacturing

Use Lean Principles to Improve Production Processes

Lean methods, made famous by Toyota, focus on eliminating the delays and unnecessary motion which consume up to 95% of total cycle time.

Two Key Lean Manufacturing Tools - Value Stream Maps and Spaghetti Diagrams

Value Stream Maps help identify and eliminate unnecessary delays. Spaghetti Diagrams help identify and eliminate unnecessary movement of staff, materials, equipment or whatever. A focused team can create current and improved process flows with either of these two diagrams in a hour or two.

value stream map spaghetti diagram

Tip: Most of the delays are in the arrows between steps.

Here's a Manufacturing team using Post-it® Notes to value stream map an existing process and develop an improved process flow:

Lean Manufacturing Value Stream Mapping Team

Unfortunately, most manufacturing facilities expand organically rather than optimally. Value Stream Maps and Spaghetti Diagrams will eliminate 80-90% of the unnecessary delays and movement while increasing worker productivity and business profitability.