Lean Manufacturing, or simply Lean, is an industrial management philosophy focused on eliminating waste, increasing efficiency, and creating customer value with the least possible consumption of resources.
Originating from the Toyota production system, Lean is now widely used in factories, laboratories, maintenance sectors, quality, development, and even in offices — including testing and validation areas.
🧠 The 5 fundamental principles of Lean
- Define value – What really matters to the end customer
- Map the value stream – Identify all steps and eliminate waste
- Establish continuous flow – Reduce interruptions and bottlenecks
- Implement pull system – Production on demand, without excess inventory
- Seek perfection (Kaizen) – Continuous and systematic improvement
🔥 The 8 wastes Lean combats (TIMWOODS)
| Waste | Example in a testing environment |
|---|---|
| Transport | Moving devices from one sector to another without added value |
| Inventory | Excessive stock of untested parts |
| Motion | Unnecessary operator movements at the test station |
| Waiting | Idle time waiting for release, approval, or data |
| Overprocessing | Redundant test steps or unnecessary tolerances |
| Overproduction | Producing/testing more than necessary |
| Defects | Assembly errors or failures not detected in time |
| Skills underutilization | Unutilized technical knowledge or poorly designed interface |
🧩 Lean applications in testing environments
- Standardization of test stations and test jigs
- Reduction of cycle time with smart automation
- Optimized layouts with continuous product flow
- Elimination of unnecessary test steps
- Integration of test software with MES/ERP
- Visual management with indicators of failure, lead time, and rework
- Multifunctional and flexible test cells
🔧 How AJOLLY Testing applies Lean in its projects
AJOLLY Testing adopts Lean principles to develop test benches, automation software, and inspection stations that maximize efficiency, quality, and productivity.
🛠️ Lean design of test systems
- Compact layouts with intuitive and ergonomic interfaces
- Automation of repetitive tests to eliminate manual variations
- Reuse of modules and configurable software
- Reduction of setup and product changeover times (SMED)
📊 Measurement and continuous improvement
- Data collection on cycle, failures, waiting time, and rework
- Monitoring of indicators such as OEE, FPY, Pareto, MTBF
- Automatic report generation to support Kaizen
- Analysis of bottlenecks and inefficient flows with visual tools (VSM)
🤝 Integration with the client’s Lean culture
- Alignment with production, quality, and engineering teams
- Collaborative projects focused on reducing lead time and improving flow
- Interface with already implemented Lean systems (Kanban, Andon, 5S, etc.)
With AJOLLY Testing, your testing processes cease to be just a control step and become an active part of a lean, connected, and continuously improving culture.