MHIA offers Lean tips, case histories

By Plant Engineering Staff February 23, 2007

Lean manufacturing is the management philosophy of reducing waste in manufactured products or any type of business. Achieving the beginning stages of Lean is fairly easy; it’s taking it to the next level that requires hard work, dedication, and in many cases, the right equipment.

“Lean manufacturing is all about managing your processes with the goal being a measurable return-on-investment for your efforts at implementing change, however simple or sophisticated that change may be,” said Dick Ward, executive vice president, Material Handling Industry of America . “You can achieve the first steps of Lean relatively easily, and then you reach a point where you have to look for the next opportunity.”

In “Slimming Down with Technology,” the Material Handling Industry of America cites six companies that successfully implemented Lean techniques in their material handling operations. Read the entire article here .