Manufacturing Strategy and Lean Manufacturing

Manufacturing strategy can be defined as a set of co-ordinated and planned objectives and actions for a company’s production function, aimed at securing medium and long-term sustainable advantage over its competitors.

The production function requires a strategy to ensure a match between the company's markets and the existing and future abilities of the production system. A robust manufacturing strategy generally addresses:

• Manufacturing capacity
• Production planning/stock control/JIT/materials’ optimisation
• Organisation and personnel
• Quality
• Production facilities
• Use of technology

It is now generally accepted that the production function is at the heart of a manufacturing company’s success. This strategic approach must be combined with a pragmatic approach to continual improvement at an operational level if a company is to thrive in its chosen markets.

Lean manufacturing is a way of organising the resources of a factory to optimise the output.  The theory of lean manufacturing can also be applied to services, the objectives of “lean”
being:

• To identify waste elements in a system (Muda 7 Streams of Waste)
• To apply Value Stream Analysis to a complex system
• To be able to identify and implement the 5Ss of lean