SAE Publishes New 'Lean Operation' Standard

Thanks to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE; Warrendale, PA), the auto industry has an official standard for "lean operation." SAE has published a document – called "Identification and Measurement of Best Practice in Implementation of Lean Operation" (SAE J4000) – which can be used to identify and measure implementation of lean operation in manufacturing companies.

According to Roy Trent, director of SAE's Best Manufacturing Practices (BMP) Automotive Manufacturing Initiative (AMI), the new SAE J4000 and the incorporation of lean operation can assist manufacturers to achieve significant cost and time savings by eliminating waste in an organization's value stream.

"Now automotive and manufacturing companies will have a common definition of ‘lean' and a yardstick to measure their lean status, as well as a methodology to compare their operations with the most successful lean operating systems," Trent said. "As SAE expands its focus across the vehicle's total life cycle – including manufacturing – this document is one of many resources that will be made available to help companies improve operations. It may also be useful to automotive suppliers in meeting the continuous improvement program requirements in QS-9000."

Six areas of implementation are covered in the document:
management/trust; people; information; supplier/organization/customer chain; product; and process/flow. It also lists 52 components that provide measurable points of reference for successful implementation of lean operation.

To help users interpret and apply the standard, SAE also has developed another document, "Implementation of Lean Operation Users Manual," (J4001) and a research report documenting examples of current best practices entitled "Best Practices in the Implementation of Lean Operation Among Manufacturers." The report, which offers an objective study of lean operations, spanned one year and included experts in lean operations from both automakers and academia.

To support the standard further, SAE is currently developing other resources such as lean assessor training and lean assessor certification.

The new standard, according to Trent, is the result of an ongoing BMP survey program. Lean operation was chosen as the focus of the first AMI best manufacturing practices survey last year, after the vice presidents of manufacturing for six major automakers cited the topic as the most important success factor in the competitiveness of the auto industry for the next several years.

The SAE J4000 standard evolved from the template created for and used in the survey. The survey evaluated operations at companies recognized as lean models: Donnelly Corp., Freudenberg-NOK, Johnson Controls Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp., Raytheon Co. and The Timken Co. These companies, both from within and outside the auto industry, were selected based on input from automaker executives, industry analysts, academics, and independent research.

The SAE J4000 standard is available for $25 by contacting SAE, 724-776-4970 or by e-mail to publications@sae.org.