Who's leanest? Who do you think does lean "best"?

[Claire]

Hi people - haven't been around for a while but hoping to drop in more often again.
I'm carrying out some research into lean manufacturing and its effects on the environmental impact of companies. I'm currently trying to find companies to use as case studies.
In the course of trying to identify co.s that are "good at" lean, I thought maybe it would be an interesting discussion for the forum as well. Who do you think does lean "best" (however you would choose to define it) or at least very well or has an interesting take on it? And why?
And if anyone can suggest any other ways to generate a list of companies that would make good case studies - I'm all ears! (or should that be eyes?)

[alekra]

I think we cannot talk about lean manufacturing without talking about TOYOTA. It is a benchmark for the others. It has introduced (in my opinion, sorry if I am wrong) in the manufacturing some concepts that were only theory before, like: just in time deliveries, some qualities techniques that reduce reworks (pokayokes), kaizen, ...
I would suggest a book, in Brazil the tittle is "A máquina que mudou o mundo", the translation would be "The machine that has changed the world". It´s the true story about automotive industry.

[reigelser]

Hi Claire,
do you look for a particular industry or any company? Should it be mass production, automotive, chemical, pharmaceutical, capital goods?

For capital goods you might be interested in TRUMPF machine tools in Germany. They earned the factory of the year award 2005 I think. The system is called "Synchro" and part of it is to achieve Lean Manufacturing (Synchro is basically their production system).

Hope that helps.

Jo

[Manoj Mathur]

A small Clue !!

Who earned Shingo Prize could be considerd as Lean Company !!