LEAN MANUFACTURING – INNOVATION FOR 21st CENTURY

Unpredictable, unstable and highlycompetitive conditions of today’s business havebrought significant changes to the global marketscene, imposing upon all participants a new''customer in focus" business philosophy. In theserespective conditions, the traditional ways of doingbusiness, centered on mass production, cannotsecure an adequate market position. On the otherhand, lean manufacturing, as a quick, innovative,inexpensive, flexible and computer-integratedmodel, almost entirely based on the application ofJIT concept, represents something like a ''recipe forsuccess''. More precisely, by identifying andeliminating unnecessary and wasteful activitiesinside the business process and by focusingattention exclusively on what, from the customer’sstandpoint appears to create value, lean productionsystem makes it possible to achieve maximumquality of production processes in order toestablish and maintain balance between good andtimely services to customers and service providers’profitability in the modern business environment.