Digital Lean Manufacturing

 

Lean manufacturing have revolutionised industries in past decades. The focus of lean manufacturing has been to reduce costs by reducing waste at each step of process. Using digital tools, lean processes can be strengthened more by providing more accurate and real time analysis. 

Lean process like Kanban, Heijunka and TPM can be improved using digital tools. 

Kanban is used for resource replenishment. Instead of traditional cards, RFID tags can be used to trigger replenishment. Heijunka is a tool used for multi commodities on a modular line. AI based scheduling can help to optimise the processes. TPM is the predictive maintenance of tools. Using sensors for torque, pressure or other measures, maintenance can be scheduled easily.

The seven wastes mentioned in lean manufacturing can be reduced by using AI and other digital tools. For example, to reduce worker movement, VR can be used to optimise job work. 

The shift towards digitisation is a part of change management. It requires strong framework to make get long term benefits.