工业工程与管理

Lean Thinking: An Overview

Abstract

Thangarajoo Y and Smith A

The lean manufacturing is a popular means of continuous improvement that has reshaped manufacturing processes, practices, and principles globally. Originating from the automobile industry, the approach has been used extensively in the manufacturing sector since the 1990s. Basically, lean manufacturing centered around the philosophy of continuously improving performances by systematically eliminating wastes in the manufacturing floor. Lean thinking was introduced to extend the concept from the manufacturing floor to a business operation level. This paper is intended to provide an overview on the concept of lean thinking, discuss in details the five key principles constituting the concept.