PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT BY LEAN MANUFACTURING PHILOSOPHY

In the increasingly global marketplace, many manufacturers and service providers are applying lean manufacturing philosophy in order to optimize costs and quality gaining a competitive advantage. The paper summarises the advantages of application of lean philosophy in the manufacturing and service sectors, which focuses on value-added flow and the efficiency of the overall system. Lean manufacturing techniques and typical wastes are also detailed. The author describes the main general steps of a lean project completed in an industrial environment, and finally a case study is presented.