Cleveland News

For years, the concept of lean manufacturing has been used to streamline manufacturing processes, cutting out inefficiencies and making the process as effective and efficient as possible. That same concept can be applied to the world of engineering through the use of lean engineering principles.

Ultimately, the lean concept involves streamlining processes down as much as possible, eliminating any waste along the way. Getting rid of inefficiencies like this makes processes run much more smoothly, which can increase speed, reduce expenses, and boost productivity.

Even though the idea of lean got its start in the world of manufacturing, the basic concept can be applied to any process in the workplace. Once you learn the underlying principles, you can use them to boost efficiency and eliminate waste in everything that you do. The more regularly you apply the lean concept to your company’s processes, the more efficient they will become.

One of the first principles of lean engineering involves identifying waste. When looking at a physical process such as a product being made, this is relatively easy. You can physically see where wasteful or unnecessary steps are taking place.

In the world of engineering, it is a little bit more difficult since much of the work that is done doesn’t involve a physical product. That means that you need to take a slightly different view of what constitutes waste.

Ultimately, the goal of any business is to meet the needs of its customers. You can use that to identify waste in your business. All that you need to do is ask yourself which processes or activities are not benefiting or adding to the experience for your customers. Anything that falls into this category is most likely waste, which means it could be eliminated.

The only way to identify unnecessary processes is by taking a look at everything that your business does on a granular level. By evaluating the duties of every single employee and taking a closer look at their workflow, you can spot areas for improvement.

For instance, imagine that an engineer writes a report. They are then required to submit it to their supervisor for feedback or approval. With the supervisor’s busy schedule, however, it usually takes a lot longer than necessary for the approval to come through. During this time, the engineer is stuck waiting, unable to move forward to the next step of the project. By figuring out how to streamline or eliminate the approval process, efficiency could be vastly improved.

There are a number of lean engineering principles that can be applied to just about any work situation. Learning more about what these principles are and how to use them can help reduce inefficiencies in the workplace. This often results in lower expenses, faster project completion times, and happier customers.

From an employee standpoint, incorporating lean principles can lead to less stress, as well. By enabling people to do their jobs more efficiently, they are less likely to wind up falling behind on their projects, which means they won’t feel as overworked or frustrated.