۱٫ The emergence of lean manufacturing

۲٫ Lean manufacturing implementation

۳٫ Improving the Lean stream – Lean Six Sigma

۴٫ Lean Six Sigma design

۵٫ The survey: Just-in-time production method

۶٫ Conclusions

References

This paper aims to bring to the forefront a concept that has put its mark on the manufacturing process development over the past two decades, namely lean manufacturing. The objective of the theoretical part of the article is, by summarizing the information existing in the literature, to present the meanings given to the concept of lean manufacturing and how it can be implemented in organizations (steps to be followed, success factors, barriers), the term evolution and the emergence of a new concept – Lean Six Sigma. The second part is an investigative approach to the interest of Romanian bloggers in studying the lean manufacturing phenomenon, especially a well-known instrument of it, just-in-time production method. The information obtained has shown that although the concept is an intensely studied international literature, in the autochthonous approach is in the early stages.

۱٫ The emergence of lean manufacturing

Rose, Deros, et. al. (2011) argue that the last two decades were dedicated for research aimed at improving the manufacturing process. They bring into question the lean manufacturing, total quality management, total productive maintenance and their application within various manufacturing companies. In their opinion, “it was proven that lean manufacturing was considered as the best manufacturing system in the 21st century”. (Rose, Deros, et. al., 2011, pp. 872) In the same idea, Kodali (2009) believe that lean manufacturing came to the attention of companies worldwide, irrespective of the sector they belong. According to him, implementation of lean manufacturing has become a necessity among organizations wishing to operate on a global market. Although its implementation benefits are undeniable, in his opinion, not many companies have resorted to implementing its principles and philosophies. We believe it is essential to know where it started interest in what today is called lean manufacturing. Toyota is generally recognized as the birthplace of lean. (Worlev, 2004, pp. 11) Pepper and Spedding (2010) assigned the starting point of what is now known as lean thinking to Toyota company. According to them, the lean current comes from The Toyota Production System and “the development of this approach to manufacturing began shortly after the Second World War”.