Lean Principles | Overview of Lean Principles |
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Page 6 of 10 Speed is the key to applying Flexibility and InnovationBecause the Western tradition is to produce the largest possible amount of anything at once to optimise the unit costing and overhead absorption outcomes, it follows that you wait a longer time for the opportunity to see any different product completed in the production process. This problem with time is central to traditional Western methods. Customers wait longer because the production manager (and the rest of the supply chain) is focused on absorbing overhead costs.Speed is a critical competitive edge in bringing new product to the market fast and in countering otherwise equal product offerings. This problem of lost time in the batch and queue approach is also critical in engineering, marketing, storage, distribution, design and sales functions. How many innovations, product improvement programs and marketing projects are being worked on concurrently? How many are being pushed forward together one inch at a time while the customers wait weeks, months or years for an improvement to get any single one into the product offering to use or enjoy? In businesses where product is highly susceptible to obsolescence or 'write off' for other reasons, batch production is driving financial losses that never make it into the algorithms for the calculation of Minimum Batch Quantity. |