What Is Lean

|LeaN Enterprise research centre                                                                                                               |
|What is ‘Real Lean’?                                                                                                                           |
|MSc in Lean Operations – Assignment 1                                                                                                         |
|                                                                                                                                               |
|Mark Hopkinson                                                                                                                                 |
|Nov 2007                                                                                                                                       |








Contents
1 Introduction 2
2 Summary of Approaches Considered 3
2.1 Womack and Jones – Lean Thinking 3
2.2 Peter Hines – Lean Value Systems 4
2.3 John Seddon – Systems Approach 5
2.4 Kate Mackle – Flow Approach 7
3 Comparison of Key Areas 10
3.1 Areas of Application 10
3.2 Organisation and Management 10
3.3 Work, Value and Waste 11
3.4 Measures and Targets 12
3.5 Tools 12
4 Conclusion 14
4.1 What is Real Lean? 14
4.2 What Approach Should E.ON-UK Adopt? 14
5 References 16
6 Appendices 17
6.1 Appendix 1 – An Introduction to E.ON 17






Introduction

It was on the shop floors of Japanese manufacturers, most notably Toyota, in the 1950’s and 1960’s where the ideas now commonly termed as ‘Lean’ were developed.   It was in the 1980’s when the methods behind some of this thinking became available in the West, however interest in the West was minimal until ‘The Machine That Changed The World’ which highlighted the difference between Toyota and other car manufacturers was published (Womack et al., 1990).   This was where the term ‘Lean Manufacturing’ was coined.   From this...