Differences between Lean Manufacturing and Traditional Manufacturing

Aspects	Traditional Manufacturing	Lean Manufacturing
No. of equipment and people	High	Less
Factory space for same output	High	Less
Work in Progress (WIP)	High	Less
Defects	High	Less
Operational availability	Less	High
Production Lead time	High	Less
Inventory	Inventory is good	Inventory is WASTE
System schedule	Push system scheduled internally	Pull system scheduled by  CustomerRequirements
Focus	Focus on Value-Add improvement(5%)	Focus on Non-Value-Add WasteElimination (95%)
Direct labor cost	High direct labor cost	Direct labor cost is a small percentage of total labor cost
Cycle time	Long cycle time	Short cycle time
Production	Production for inventory (Just In Case-JIC)	Production on demand (Just In Time-JIT)
Inventory level	High inventory levels (Raw, WIP, Finished)	Inventory levels are radically reduced.
Production system	Assembly line flow (Each worker performs one function)	Cell production (Each operator performs multiple operations – multi skilled operators)
Cleanliness	Messy, cluttered and dirty shop floor	Spotless shop floor with visual management
Quality management	Quality management through inspection and rework	management of quality through prevention
Changes in production practice	Infrequent changes in production practice	Continuous changes to improve efficiency and productivity
Management layer	Many layers of management	Fewer layers of management
structure	Not exactly team based structure	Strong team based structure.