Managing production in correct way is one of the most complex and delicate tasks, especially when it comes to high levels of investment, above average quality and search for better and more profitable results.

With the intention to help and avoid waste in the industry that Lean Manufacturing was created. Despite the mistake of many defining it as a program, Lean is a management philosophy that works on reducing seven major companies wastes:

•  Overproduction – producing quantities beyond that needed for client;
•  Waiting time – when it is necessary to wait for something so the work is performed;
•  Processing excess – additional processes that are not paid by customers;
•  Unnecessary transport – move material without need;
•  Inventory;
•  Movement – have to move more than necessary to perform a job;
•  Defects – rework to recover production errors.

Also known as Thin or Slender Manufacturing, Lean Manufacturing was developed by Taiichi Ohno, Toyota executive, after World War II, when Japan was going through a rebuilding phase and was sought a way to revive the country, marked by serious problems stemming from world war.

At the mind of the thinkers that time, Japan needed to be very efficient to attend local markets and – at the same time – highly competitive to survive international competition. But how to get that if there was no visible means to do so?

Japanese products would need better quality and lower costs. Furthermore, an important need was to succeed reducing the time between the client request and delivery, through the end of waste. Such thinking generated a philosophy that transcends time and isn’t exceeded, because it is not a seasonal enterprise, temporary.

Lean is permanent and aims to improve always and the maximum possible. For this, it’s indispensable to look for:

•  Total quality, searching minimum history of products defects;
•  Eliminating waste, excluding activities that have no aggregate values and that consumes capital, manpower and space for development;
•  Searching flexibility, with an accelerated production of differentlots of varied products.

In practice, Lean Manufacturing consists on the production of correct materials, in the correct location, on the ideal amount, seeking to reduce waste to almost zero, always maintaining mentality of continuous improvement, with flexibility and openness to change.

With flexibility and small adjustments according to each country or region culture, Lean Manufacturing is propitious to all kinds of industry, not just the automotive, as many believe.