5.3.2 (HL)—Lean production methods

The specified lean production methods are continuous improvement (kaizen) and just-in-time (JIT). Kaizen involves employees making repeated small process improvements; JIT schedules materials and production so inputs arrive and outputs are made only when needed.

Kaizen can reduce waste and defects by using employees' process knowledge, but it needs participation, training, feedback and time for gains to accumulate. JIT lowers inventory, storage and obsolescence costs and can expose quality problems quickly, but it depends on accurate demand information, reliable suppliers, consistent quality and dependable transport.

Choose kaizen when continuous employee-led process learning addresses recurring waste; choose JIT when demand, production and supply can be synchronized. State the dependency and risk introduced by the method.

A component maker asks production teams to test small workstation changes through kaizen, while parts for confirmed orders arrive shortly before assembly under JIT. It retains a disruption plan because a delayed critical supplier could stop production.

Lean production does not require every named operations tool. For this Objective, apply kaizen and JIT only; neither can compensate for unstable processes, unreliable suppliers or poor-quality inputs.