Lean Manufacturing in a Digital World

It’s a question that crops up with amazing regularity: What’s next after lean manufacturing? It’s an odd inquiry, really, because it implies that you finish lean or toss it aside in favor of the next big thing. It suggests that the idea of removing waste, improving flow and maximizing customer value is out of vogue. It nearly proposes that lean-a term coined in the ancient past, meaning more than 30 years ago-is an old-fashioned notion with no current relevance. And now it’s 2020. Smart technologies are sweeping across the factory floor, promising to provide manufacturers with more and better data for smarter decision-making, as well as faster responses to potential downtime events. They are descriptive, predictive and prescriptive. They can do it all. Are smart technologies what’s next after lean manufacturing? Is now perhaps the time to give lean the boot? Move aside, lean manufacturing? Step away, one-piece flow? Exit stage right, value-stream mapping? Alternatively, how does lean fit into this increasingly digital manufacturing landscape?