Lean is not enough [lean manufacturing]

Lean manufacturing has been ´re-discovered´ by many UK manufacturing companies over the past two years. Announcements of its ´death´ in the late 1990s as companies´ focus moved into topical areas such as enterprise resource replacement (ERP), e-business, supply-chain management and product data management were undoubtedly premature. In a study completed by Codexx earlier this year into 25 medium-sized manufacturing companies based in the UK, 10 of them had an active lean manufacturing programme. A survey of 100 UK manufacturing executives in 2002 for The Manufacturer magazine showed that 45% were seeking to implement lean manufacturing within 12-24 months. Adopt a lean manufacturing strategy but make sure innovation plays a key part.