Business
Study Notes
Lean Production (Introduction)
- Level:
- AS, A Level
- Board:
- AQA, Edexcel, OCR, IB
Last updated 22 Mar 2021
Lean production is an approach to management that focuses on cutting out waste, whilst ensuring quality. This approach can be applied to all aspects of a business – from design, through production to distribution.
Lean production aims to cut costs by making the business more efficient and responsive to market needs.
This approach sets out to cut out or minimise activities that do not add value to the production process, such as holding of stock, repairing faulty product and unnecessary movement of people and product around the business.
Lean production originated in the manufacturing plants of Japan, but has now been adopted well beyond large and sophisticated manufacturing activities.
The lean approach to managing operations is really about:
- Doing the simple things well
- Doing things better
- Involving employees in the continuous process of improvement
- …and as a result, avoiding waste
The concept of lean production is an incredibly powerful one for any business that wants to become and/or remain competitive.
Why? Because waste = cost
Less waste therefore means lower costs, which is an essential part of any business being competitive.
Over-production: making more than is needed – leads to excess stocks
Waiting time: equipment and people standing idle waiting for a production process to be completed or resources to arrive
Transport: moving resources (people, materials) around unnecessarily
Stocks: often held as an acceptable buffer, but should not be excessive
Motion: a worker who appears busy but is not actually adding any value
Defects: output that does not reach the required quality standard – often a significant cost to an uncompetitive business
The pioneering work of Toyota (a leader in lean production) identified different kinds of waste which can be applied to any business operation. These are:The key aspects of lean production that you should be aware of are:
- Time based management
- Simultaneous engineering
- Just in time production (JIT)
- Cell production
- Kaizen (Continuous improvement)
- Quality improvement and management
You might also like
Making Operational Decisions
Study Presentations
Unit Costs
Study Notes
How BMWs are made
17th April 2018
Unit Costs and Productivity
Quizzes & Activities
Lean Production Revision Quiz
Quizzes & Activities
Labour Productivity
Study Notes
Who said we should work 5 out of 7 days?
22nd January 2019
Kaizen
Study Notes
Recommended

Exam support for 2022
Online Grade Booster Courses for A-Level Exams in May & June 2022
Exam technique, advance information support, live revision and more from the tutor2u subject specialist teams