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Introduction

Lean manufacturing LM), developed by Taiichi Ohno at Toyota Motor Company in the 1950s, was the result of the:

Toyotainnovationtotakethemindsand hands philosophy of the craftsmen era, merging it with the work standardization and assemblylineoftheFordistsystem,and adding the glue of teamwork for good measure Edwards, 1996).

LMisanenhancementofmassproduction. Getting the product right the first time, continuousimprovementefforts,qualityin products and processes, flexible production, and minimizing waste of any kind are the enhancementsthatproduceLM.

LMinvolveschangingandimproving processes. Thus, the knowledge of variation is critical to the knowledge of leanness. Common causes of variation are those inherent in the system itself and are traditionallynotafocusforimprovement action. Special causes of variation are those that are assignable and can be acted upon by management. According to Deming 1986), 94percentofmanufacturingerrorsor problems belong to the system and only the remaining 6 per cent are special. LM involves the attack upon the system, i.e. re-engineering the whole process, so that the common causes are much reduced. The system then becomes more stable with far fewervariationsonaccountofcommon causes Deming, 1986).

LMisaviablemethodformakingproducts because it is an effective tool for producing the ultimate goal, profit. To achieve this purpose, the primary goal of LM is cos