OBSESS ABOUT THE QUALITY OF YOUR PRODUCT

Often the obsessive nature of ENGINEERING productS FOR OURSELVES AND TYPICALLY A STAPLE IN THE MIND OF A STUDENT ENGINEER OR ASPIRING PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER.  THE development, remains unseen by onlookers.  only those intimately involved in the process of research, development, execution and detailed design of a project will identify completely with this notion. obsess and obsess often, but obsess smartly.  STEVE JOBS FAMOUSLY OBSESSED ABOUT THE THINGS UNSEEN.

COMMIT TO ENGINEER DUE DILIGENCE IN ORDER TO ELIMINATE WASTE

THE ELIMINATION OF WASTE IS CORE TO ANYTHING RELATED TO LEAN AS A PRACTICE. IN OUR ENGINEERING DESIGN, WE TAKE THE NAME “LEAN”, AS IN, “WITH AS LITTLE WASTE AND/OR EXCESS AS POSSIBLE”, SERIOUSLY.

TO THAT END, ONE OF THE CORE LEAN MANUFACTURING PRINCIPLES TO FOLLOW IS TO MAKE SURE THAT THERE IS AS LITTLE WASTE AS POSSIBLE IN EACH ENGINEERING DESIGN THAT YOU DO. THE MORE WASTE YOU ELIMINATE, THE MORE YOUR PROJECT SAVES WITH EVERY PRODUCT IT PRODUCES AND EVERY PROCESS CARRIED OUT.
THIS INCLUDES:

• HAVING STANDING INVENTORY (WASTING SPACE AND RESOURCES)
• MAKING UNUSABLE BY-PRODUCTS
• SPREADING OUT YOUR WORKSTATIONS TOO MUCH, INCREASING THE TRAVEL TIME BETWEEN THEM
• PRODUCTION QUEUES BACKING UP DUE TO BOTTLENECKS
• TOO MANY WORKERS BEING ASSIGNED TO A LIMITED TASK
• LACKING PROCESS AUTOMATION WHERE IT CAN BE USED

ENGINEERING DESIGN PRINCIPLES FOR LEAN MANUFACTURING

ENGINEERING PROCEDURES MUST BE IN PLACE TO improve your PROJECT EXECUTION AND practices, iT IS VITAL TO THE OUTCOME OF YOUR ENGINEERING DESIGN to document and manage your processes and procedures first. this lets you see where the gaps and inefficiencies in your PROJECT are, and thus what can be improved easily. EACH PROJECT REQUIRES ENGINEERS TO focus on making sure that the processes documented are accurate. 

IN SAYING THIS, ENGINEERING DESIGN ROOTED IN JIT (“Just In Time”) PRINCIPALS, ALLOWS One of many process  innovation focused on reducing waste. As a manufacturing principle, it focuses on working on a task or item in order to meet demand and nothing more. Nothing is completed in excess, as that is considered waste (think standing inventory).  Unfortunately, JIT is incredibly hard to pull off and comes with so many caveats in practice that it’s difficult to even know where to start.  
The ultimate goal is to have absolutely no inventory, whether that be raw resources, W WORK IN PROGRESS items, or finished products. As such, applying JIT to an existing manufacturing operation requires the managers to rethink and reorganize the entire thing.  Not to mention that if you get your order predictions wrong or something happens to affect your output (en employee slows down or a machine breaks) there’s no safety net to fall back on. 
For this reason, JIT isn’t a must-have lean manufacturing principle. If you can achieve it then great, but otherwise consider breaking your operation into smaller sets of tasks to which JIT can be applied individually. That way you can benefit from the idea without the same level of danger associated with widespread application.

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