Made-to-Order Lean: Excelling in a High-Mix, Low-Volume Environment

by Greg Lane

Low Volume Manufacturing often appears contrary to 'Lean' Methodologies, though if you look at the Toyota Production System (which had some of its roots in a Job Shop, but instead became famous for the remarkable results in high-volume manufacturing plants), one must return to the principals (not the high publicized tools) to better understand its correct application in high-mix, low-volume environments. Made to Order Lean is based on years of successfully adapting lean methodologies into Job Shops. This book is specifically geared for manufacturers that have hundreds to thousands of active part numbers with few or no ongoing forecasted volumes, and for job shops that build only to order. The primary focus is eliminating non-value-added activities and instituting improvements on the most repetitive jobs, a strategy that gives you more time to produce your low-volume work or one-offs .The book focuses on operational process improvement, but also dedicates 3 chapters to improving indirect (transactional) processes, which are a more intricate portion in these organizations and account for significant cost & lead time in high mix environments.

224 pages, Paperback

First published August 31, 2007

Reviews

[Sonia Majan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of ideas an illustrations on how to adapt lean and continuous improvement to job shops and high mix, low volume environments. If you build to order or engineer to order this book offers you many ideas. I took away many ideas that have been mostly successful in my organization. Well worth the investment.

[Corey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book does not present the true reasoning for the lean tools and the continuous improvement method. It is scatter brained and tells the reader to go after actions for various reasons but rarely for the correct one (it gets you to your goals and targets).

It was an easy read and gave some quick examples for lean tools, but I didn’t feel like it gave me the broad mentality and methodology or the detailed understanding of how to use the tools. I feel like I am now more or less aware that tools exist (most of which I already knew about) and what they may look like on paper but am no closer to true implementation methods.