DEARBORN, MIOnly one in four small to midsized manufacturers in the Northeast are pursuing lean manufacturing, according to a survey by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.
About half of the respondents said they were either not aware of the advantages of lean manufacturing, were not interested in it, or did not believe they could use lean principles to help their organizations. Yet, when asked to prioritize problems within their operations, the manufacturers identified waste in areas that lean manufacturing specifically targets, including manufacturing processes, equipment effectiveness, setup and cycle time, general business planning, workforce development, production scheduling and inventory management.