CHAPTER 3
The First Step Toward Sustainability—Lean and Six-Sigma
3.1 The Lean Management Philosophy: Types of Waste
Lean and six-sigma are two mainstream process improvement methodologies. Several books have been written about these two methodologies; as a result, this chapter will only summarize some main points. Although some purists may not agree completely, “lean manufacturing,” “Toyota Production System (TPS),” and “Big Just-in-Time” are three different names referring to the same thing. In a nutshell, the objective of lean is to reduce waste (muda, in Japanese) in all aspects of a firm’s production activities: human relations, vendor relations, technology, and the management of materials and inventory. There are seven forms of waste:
Get Sustainable Operations and Closed Loop Supply Chains, Second Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
