Here's how you can grasp the crucial Lean Manufacturing principles as an entry-level professional.

A good idea to start with is to have an actual dialogue with your customers. This will help you understanding their basic needs before launching your mapping project. My experience is that many are too eager to start drawing trying to create a detailed image of the process without really understanding why the product, service or information is assembled the way it is. Restrain yourself from mapping before you have walked the process multiple times and interviewed them who work there. If you have the self-discipline to do this, you will understand the map so much better once you are mature to start. So my advice is, - spend time to observe, interview all, and be very painstakingly detailing the information flow, a lot is hiding there.

Pay attention to the value stream—it's all about the steps in your process that add value for the customer. Figure out what's working and what's not, and see how you can make things smoother. By focusing on the value stream, you'll get the hang of spotting what needs fixing and making things better.

Try to find ways to first recognizing the waste. Then find ways to measure it. If you can’t express the magnitude of the waste you will have a hard time convincing managers to do the necessary changes. A good way to attract management attention is to fix quality problems. Everyone understands quality. Preventing defects have three stages: 1, Detect it before it leaves the line. 2, Detect when defect is created. 3, Detect before defect is created.

If, as a novis, you want to improve the flow, you will have to start calculating things. A good start up exercise is to estimate the number of finished goods in the flow. Also add the incoming materials that will become finished goods at the end of line. Once you have the numbers multiply this by the actual cycle time and you’ll get the actual time the work in progress will need to go through the process. Now you’ll be able to make a comparison using the same number of units but instead multiply it by the designed cycle time. Now you’ll have the time it should take to go through the same process. This will give you a good basis for discussing what is really going on.

O princípio crucial, de nível básico, seria com certeza "entender claramente o que agrega ou não valor ao cliente". Por exemplo, excesso de estoque, falta de qualidade, excesso de controle de qualidade, excesso de processo, defeitos e rejeitos, atrasos na entrega, transporte, fábrica gigante e luxuosa, muitos equipamentos ociosos ou sem disponibilidade, improdutivo, tudo isso converte em custo do produto que o cliente paga. Todos estes exemplos não agregam valor ao cliente, então deve se buscar eliminar todos estes desperdícos. O cliente precisa de um produto de qualidade, na quantidade e momento que precisa, de custo aceitável. Somente após este entendimento, usar qualquer ferramenta Lean vai levar a uma manufatura enxuta.