Lean: A methodology to save America’s manufacturing sector
Manufacturing sector in America provides jobs to more than 17 million people and is one of the largest sectors. It is the leading sector which is contributing positively towards economy and job creation of America. Presently, there are more than 50,000 manufacturing industries.
But, in the last decade issues like inflation, high labor cost and shortage of skilled laborers have rocked the manufacturing sector of America. So, manufacturing sector of America is moving towards developing countries like Brazil, India, China, Bulgaria or Malaysia in search of better talent and cheap labor. Even, companies like IBM which require high skilled jobs in research, design and technology too are trying to establish itself in third world countries. Since 2000, more than 3 million jobs have moved to other countries.
American was desperately needed something to save its manufacturing sector. For this, business leaders of manufacturing sector launched lean manufacturing. Lean is a business methodology which aims to eliminate waste, increase the skill of laborers and stop the wave of employment loss. Lean manufacture is not an overnight solution. The principals of lean manufacturing must be followed thoroughly to get the benefit. Lean manufacturing is one of the best ways to rips costs.
Today, directly or indirectly all big manufacturing companies have lean initiative. There are following principals of lean manufacturing:
• Constant improvement- it is the most critical principal of lean conference. Without improvement there will be no development. Even at small level but improvement must go on.
• Respect for human skill- Most valuable resource for any company is its workers. So, communication with authority and worker, good salary, listening to their views etc are very important to respect the worker of the company.
• Thorough production- workload should be same everyday in any company.
• Quality production- From selecting raw materials to packaging any company must not compromise in quality.
American is trying its best to stop manufacturing sector which is shifting towards developing countries. This can be done only by open discussion on problems of manufacturing sector. Lean conference is the need of the hour for manufacturing sector of America. There are many organizations in America which provide a kind of open platform to the manufacturing industries and workers to interact together and sort out the problems of this sector. Generis is one such organization which regularly organizes lean conference. Many eminent business personalities participate in such kinds of events and stress on the need of lean manufacturing.
Only the lean manufacturing can bring quality performance, more work in less time, faster delivery, customer satisfaction, faster development and more profit which overall lead to development of entire business organization.
There is no doubt that lean technology is going to spread in coming months. More and more manufacturing companies are leaning towards lean technology. Only lean technology has potential to stop the job losses in America.
