Lean Manufacturing and Environment

Authors:

Rajesh Goel (Manav Rachna International University, Faridabad)

Ranvijay Singh (Manav Rachna International University, Faridabad)

Keywords: Lean Manufacturing, Environment, Waste elimination.

Abstract:

“Lean manufacturing” is a leading manufacturing paradigm being applied in many sectors, where improving product quality, reducing production costs, and being “first to market” and quick to respond to customer needs are critical to competitiveness and success. Lean principles and methods focus on creating a continual improvement culture that engages employees in reducing the intensity of time, materials, and capital necessary for meeting a customer’s needs. While lean production’s fundamental focus is on the systematic elimination of non-value added activity and waste from the production process, the implementation of lean principles and methods also results in improved environmental performance. At the heart of successful lean implementation efforts lies an operations-based, employee-involved, continual improvement-focused waste elimination culture. While environmental wastes (e.g., solid waste, hazardous wastes, air emissions, wastewater discharges) are seldom the explicit targets of or drivers for lean implementation efforts, case study and empirical evidence shows that the environmental benefits resulting from lean initiatives are typically substantial. The cumulative effect makes lean manufacturing a powerful vehicle for reducing the overall environmental footprint of manufacturing and business operations, while creating an engine for sustained and continual environmental improvement.

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