Lean Manufacturing Principle

The following are the ten basic lean manufacturing principles of Kaizen in Gemba.

1. Discard conventional rigid thinking about production: You must think outside of the box here. I know this is hard to do, but you must get your "come from" out of the picture, and look at it from some one else's point of view.
2. Think of how to do it, not why it can't be done: This line of thinking is normally "we can't because we have never done it that way". Get rid of that.
3. Do not make excuses. Start by questioning current practices: Again, you must look at new methods and ways to do things.
4. Do not seek perfection. Do it right away even if for only 50% of target: This is basically for those of us that like everything figured out before we get started. This will not work. Because, I guarantee you will end up changing what you start off with, so you might as well get started.
5. Correct mistakes at once: Get started right away, the correct as you go.
6. Do not spend money for Kaizen: You are just changing procedures and habits. All of this is free.
7. Wisdom is brought out when faced with hardship: This will come from others asking some tough questions, and requesting some tough answers. You may not have them, but you will struggle until you come up with them. Through this comes wisdom and knowledge.
8. Ask "Why?" five times and seek the root cause: Keep asking "Why" until you know the answer
9. Seek the wisdom of ten people rather than the knowledge of one: This is very beneficial to getting different ideas and thoughts into the process.
10. Remember that opportunities for kaizen are infinite: Just because you figure something out, or make an improvement, this is not the end. You can always improve on the improvement.

There is not really just one lean manufacturing principle here. You have ten. And all of these play an important roll in developing your very own lean manufacturing principles.

For more information on lean manufacturing, visit Lean Manufacturing Resources and Information.