The 8 Essential LEAN Techniques You Need to Know
                     The 8 Essential 
LEAN 
Techniques You 
Need to Know
BY: JIM DAWSON
Summery
Lean technology is one of the best tools to eliminate waste in any 
process. Lean techniques are used typically used in a production 
environment and can be used in any environment that uses 
process. Let’s take a read about 8 different lean techniques.
Lean Techniques #1 Kaizen
Kaizen improves work process in several different ways. The work 
Kaizen comes from Japan and means continuous improvement or 
making things better.
Lean Techniques #2 Poka-Yoke
 The second lean technique is Poka-Yoke. Its role is to prevent 
defects and mistakes. It uses a wide variety of ingenious devices to 
prevent mistakes. Poka-yoke is also referred as mistake proofing, in 
all aspects of manufacturing, customer service etc. It is one of the 
most important lean techniques that employ visual signals which 
make mistakes clearly stand out from the crowd.
Lean Techniques #3 5S
5S lean technique focuses on organising. Its role is to lessen 
wasteful time & motion at a micro level. It is a framework to create 
& maintain your workplace. The 5S stands for – sort, set-in-order, 
shine, standardize and sustain. Sort means sorting all the 
unnecessary items and tools from the work place, set-in-order 
means putting all the necessary items in place that minimises 
waste of motion. Shine means keeping the work place in a clean 
and orderly manner. Standardise means all processes at work 
station are standardised and finally sustain means every single 
individual who is at work sustains all the previous S’s.
Lean Technique #4 KANBAN
The purpose of Kanban is to schedule production and minimise 
work-in-progress while encouraging improvement in several areas. 
It uses visual display cards to signal movement of material between 
steps of a product process.
Lean Techniques #5: Just In Time
It is a production strategy that aims to improve the ROI (Return on 
Investment) of the business by reducing in-process inventory & 
associated carrying costs. Just-in-time is actually a manufacturing 
philosophy which leads to “Producing the necessary units, in the 
necessary quantities at the necessary time with the required 
quality”.
Lean Technique #6 Jidoka
Jidoka aims to prevent problems at one station of production line by 
building inventory and also to create urgency to find permanent 
solutions. It is basically the practice of putting an end to the 
integrated assembly or production line when any work station 
encounters problems. It implements a supervisory function in a 
production line and stops the process as soon as a defect is 
encountered.
Lean Techniques #7 Takt-time
Takt-time aims to balance the output of sequential production 
processes & prevent inventory build-ups & shortages. It is the 
average time required between output-units at a particular process 
coordinated with final customer requirements.
Lean techniques #8 Heijunka
Heijunka, the last part of the Lean Manufacturing Technology means 
levelling up production by both volume and product mix. It takes the 
total volume of orders in a period and levels them out so the same 
amount and mix are being made each day. It is the technique of 
reducing waste which occurs due to fluctuating customer demand.
“Any part of a process that does not add value 
the consumer are 
eliminated using Lean ”
techniques.
Lean Manufacturing 
Technology
[email protected]
https://www.leanmanufacturingtechnology.com/
+44 7950 458730
Source: https://blog.masterofproject.com/8-lean-
techniques/