If you were to put the main concepts of Lean Manufacturing and Material Handling next to each other, you’d immediately see how much the two have in common. As with most technical disciplines found in industrial manufacturing, this is because they both naturally serve the same end goal: streamlining operations via a well-defined process which leads to extremely repeatable, consistent results.
In fact, these two domains have so much in common that we can often trace the success of a Lean Manufacturing rollout back to the material handling elements it touched. Conversely, when a Lean rollout struggles to gain traction, the challenging bits rarely involve material handling. In these ways, we like to say that material handling plays a hidden role in the success of Lean Manufacturing, as we’ll demonstrate below.
Mapping Material Handling Practices to the Core Principles of Lean Manufacturing
To start, what is Lean Manufacturing? Lean Manufacturing is a management system used by production-oriented companies to reduce waste and maximize value for their customers. Lean was developed by the Toyota Company in Japan during the mid-20th century as an operational framework to rigorously pursue producing more with less. Lean methods have since been adopted all over the world as arguably the best framework to exist for optimizing production operations.
Lean Manufacturing provides these five core principles that collectively aim to eliminate activities that do not add value for customers:
- Value – manufacturers shall see themselves as the voice of their customers, driving all of their actions towards the value that the customer seeks. In this way, customers are considered part of the production team, and the team altogether works to achieve the expected value.
- Value Stream – manufacturers shall map out all the steps that it takes to produce an end product, and thoroughly scrutinize it for opportunities to reduce waste in all its forms (bottlenecks, rework, lost time, and so on).
- Flow – processes shall be designed to be as continuous in flow as possible, so as to reduce the overall time required to produce goods. This includes all workflows adjacent to production like inventory movement, material transfers, and even people and data traffic.
- Pull – Lean Manufacturing favors “pull” production, which are processes that are initiated entirely by downstream demand (for example, a production run is triggered by an actual customer order, instead of being forecasted and ran early). Pull production minimizes inventory, overproduction, and changeover time.
- Perfection – overall, Lean Manufacturing shoots for complete perfection as its ultimate goal, which in Lean language means zero waste and maximum value. Lean says that this pursuit shall become part of the organization’s natural existence, using continuous improvement tools to perpetually cut waste, forever.
Viewing Material Handling Solutions from a Lean Waste Reduction Perspective
Keeping the above goals of Lean Manufacturing in mind, now we can look at exactly how material handling fits in.
- Lean-Aligned Design Criteria – material handling systems fall into Lean Manufacturing practices when they are designed to shorten travel paths, minimize handling time and effort, improve safety, and prevent damage.
- Right-Sized Equipment – material handling equipment is right-sized for its application when its capacity and throughput tightly match overall production bands, avoiding unused capacity.
- Resource Minimization – carrying on with the above point, right-sized equipment that is also designed for efficiency consumes fewer resources (i.e., power, footprint, operator headcount, and compressed air).
- Effort Reduction – ergonomic and step-reducing features go a long way to make material handling Leaner, especially those solutions that cut motion, bending, lifting, reaching, and travel distances.
- Space Efficiency – going further with the notion that space is a resource, material handling gear that serves more volume in less space is precisely Lean (i.e., high-bay racking, storage carousels, and mezzanines).
- Reliability – by considering time as a resource, material handling systems that are designed and then commissioned to ensure maximum reliability is a great way to combat waste in the form of downtime.
- Integral Quality Assurance – quality assurance (QA) protections built directly into material handling systems cut waste and rework (i.e., low-velocity robotics, guided conveyor transfers, conveyor gapping, and in-situ vision systems).
- Automation – material handling automation is the most direct way to realize all the above benefits, from small upgrades (i.e., conveyors, case packers) to site-wide solutions (i.e., autonomous vehicles and automated storage and retrieval systems, or AS/RSs).
Here we can clearly see how material handling directly bolsters Lean Manufacturing objectives, more than is often recognized from a distance. When companies roll out Lean initiatives, they often focus on big movers like reducing headcount and production steps. What is not always obvious is just how many ways that their material handling systems influence overall production waste and value. The good news is that now you’ll be fully prepared to spot these opportunities, knowing how material handling systems map to the core principles of Lean Manufacturing.
We hope that this discussion has been helpful for your commercial material handling and operational needs. Fairchild Equipment is the Upper Midwest’s premier Material Handling Equipment and Service resource, with headquarters in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and numerous locations ready 24/7 to serve your needs throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Northern Illinois. For more information or to discuss which equipment solution might be best for you, please call us at (844) 432-4724 or send us a message.
