hi there in this business topic video we're going to take a look and provide an overview of a concept called lean production lean production is essentially a management approach and the aim of lean production is to try to find ways of cutting out the variety of different kinds of waste in a business but without compromising on product quality in essence lead production the different methods of applying it are all about doing things better in a business doing the simple things well and importantly involving those involved in the business the employees in identifying all those small changes in the way things are done that as a result can reduce waste and therefore reduce business costs there are lots of reasons why a business would want to cut out waste but essentially it all comes down to one thing which is that waste in a business involves cost and if there's excess waste there is excess costs and therefore lower profit to the business this is an approach that needs to be avoided at all times excess costs poor quality high waste is usually a recipe for a business that will be uncompetitive there are various examples aren't there of different kinds of waste in business for example if we were thinking about inventories in production or stocks over production of those stocks or inventories can lead to the build-up of excess stocks too much stock not enough demand and in time that can lead to stock write-offs and further losses and also the additional costs of storing and handling that stock or as a result of overproduction wasteful production waste can also involve time for example it might will be there's been an investment in a production line that's lying idle not being used or the production line is not being used as much as was anticipated when we went through the investment appraisal for the production line any time where there's people standing idle waiting for production process to be completed or assets not being used efficiently that's waste that's excess cost and of course perhaps the most important and potentially significant example of waste in business is defective output output that is not up to the required standard of quality and this is often the case you find this a lot in businesses that are uncompetitive a high level of substandard or defective output we're going to take a look briefly for the rest of this video at some of the main methods of lean production there are a whole variety of them and it's important for you to have an awareness of them rather than necessarily detailed knowledge of course with all the production methods the key thing to remember this is not a short-term fix lean production is a it's more of a long-term philosophy a lot of these techniques are difficult to implement and difficult to sustain and they do require for example in relation to just in time good and sustained relationships with key suppliers it involves a sustained investment in training of staff and it's largely around culture a culture of quality assurance a willingness to always look at searching out finding and solving issues of waste in the business therefore to a large extent successful lean production requires that trust between management and employees that's built on a sustainable relationship let's just briefly and a quickly look at some of the main methods of lean production as i say you don't need to know all the detail but you do need to have an awareness of the different approaches time based management for example is an approach to lean production that seeks to look at all the different elements of time used in the operational processes and try to reduce idle or wasted time and a key aspect of time-based management is to organize production flexibly try to find ways of organizing production capacity so that products can be changed around quickly so there is some flexibility about the perhaps the the capacity of the production lines and another key requirement of time based management is to ensure that employees are appropriately trained and in particular that they are multi-skilled they're able to move from one task or different part of a process between to another that they're not simply waiting around idly waiting for their particular job or their particular role to be completed simultaneous engineering is another example of lean production which we'll spend a lot of time on but essentially this is about trying to fast track the planning of complex projects and in particular new product development and the key here is to try to find ways of doing everything at the same time by bringing together teams rather than as a series of activities cell production cell production involves teams teamwork of employees working together in a cell where each cell is responsible for a complete unit of work and it's found cell production can lead to a significant reduction in waste because the cell takes ownership it takes responsibility for the satisfactory completion of the work a key benefit of cell production of course is that the cell members are working as a team and therefore their communication should be better so production is also a way of facilitating this concept of multi which skilling which is we've seen as a is a key way of reducing the time required by each production process just in time i'm sure you've heard of often shortened to jit or jit just in time is all about organizing the production or operations process so that the inputs only arrive as they are needed the inputs could be raw materials but of course it could also be services it could be time it could be other components just in time is essentially around the complex scheduling of operations so that the resources or the inputs into the operational process only arrive precisely when they're needed so for example a factory operating just in time would receive the inputs the raw materials the components for maybe that evenings or next stage production a few hours before they hit the assembly lines or the production line now of course that's a very good way of minimizing stocks inventories but you can imagine that it also requires a great deal of trust between the business and the suppliers of those inputs making sure they genuinely arrive at the right time a key benefit of of just in time is that it reduces stocks it reduces a level of inventories and a stock is only need is only received when it's needed it also means that less working capital is invested in inventories potential drawback of just in time is that it leaves very little room for mistakes it's highly reliant on the suppliers of those inputs and of course if they do not deliver on time then usually the whole production schedule has to be delayed kaizen is another approach of lead management it's sometimes otherwise known as continuous improvement and this is more of a cultural approach within an organization because it's all about identifying those small incremental changes in the way things are done that can lead to small improvements in efficiency and or quality but taken together and over a longer period of time the effect on the businesses productivity efficiency and waste can be very significant the key point about kaizen is that the ideas for continuous improvement come from those involved in the operational processes from the employees and what they're looking for are the small improvements that don't necessarily need large investments but can lead to significant benefits all employees are looking for small ways to improve their own performance or perhaps that of their team and a great benefit of kaizen if it's implemented successfully and the rewards are shared is that employees really do take ownership of their work very much reinforcing the concepts and the benefits of teamworking and the consequent effects on motivation there we go giving you a brief introduction there to what lean production is all about it's all about cutting out waste and therefore reducing costs and we've highlighted four or five of the main approaches to lean production