Many manufacturing engineers assume that lean manufacturing principles only apply to manual assembly applications. However, lean initiatives can work just as well in an automated environment. No matter how a product is assembled, concepts like continuous improvement, customer focus, pull, one-piece flow and waste elimination can help improve the bottom line by boosting throughput, increasing capacity, lowering costs and improving product quality. Whether an assembly process is manual or fully automated, lean manufacturing shortens the time between customer order and shipment by eliminating waste.
This is not to say that applying lean principles to an automated process is easy. In a manual production setting, it is fairly straightforward for lean practitioners to observe people working, identify inefficiencies, and then shift work and tools accordingly. As a result, Kaizen improvement-of-activity events can be completed in a matter of hours, with changes implemented on the spot.