International Journal of Industrial Engineering & Production Research

Abstract: At the last decade of the 20^th century, Womack et. Al introduced Lean concept to the industrial world. Since 1990 up to now, existed studies mostly have focused on lean production in the step of manufacturing, but in this research leanness concept has developed in the plant life cycle. In this paper leanness concept will be described as elimination of wastes in the phases of investment, plant design & construction(hardware), organization & systems design (software) and these three steps will be added to, elimination of previously described seven wastes in production step. For this purpose at first, the types of wastes in the above mentioned phases are defined by using Axiomatic Design methodology. After defining the types of wastes, a model for assessment of leanness is submitted. In this quantitative model, amount of leanness in each phase will be determined and combined to make a unique measure for total leanness. Dimensions of leanness are shown for quick understanding, by using a spider diagram. In the last section of the paper, the results of an example of the application of this model in fan industry are brought. This example shows the simplicity and powerfully of the model to determine the leanness in before production phases. © 2008 Authors all rights reserved.