The term “Lean production” was coined by the U.S. scholars  James Womack and Daniel Jones. In their book  (Machine That Changed the World, 1989) they have been the first ones confronting the performances achieved by  the production system of the main car producers worldwide with the ones achieved by the Japanese Toyota, through an in-deep analysis of the reasons leading to a net superiority of this latter when compared to all other competitors.

Since then, it has become an industrial philosophy that – considering the productive process in its whole – aims at minimizing every sort of waste till they are definitely annulled, wastes deriving from  correction, overproduction, motion, material movement, waiting, inventory and process. 

Practicing the  Lean Thinking  within the frame of its own company requires a radical change in the corporate culture that must begin from the top management. A challenge that the companies operating in the packaging industry accept every day. 

Lean production process requires a special attention in terms of safety, so that the elimination of wastes does not lead to increasing dangers. And about an indispensable approach based on a strict inter-dependence between the two aspects,  a subcommittee of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) of Washington has fixed some technical standards  ‘ Technical Report for Machines’ , applicable  to whichever machinery, including the ones of the packaging industry, of course. 

For more info:   www.ansi.org