Production Leveling | Heijunka

Production leveling refers to a scheduling technique and is one of the pillars of lean management in manufacturing industry. It aims to cushion variations in customer orders and improve system consistency through sequential and split work planning, determined on the basis of analysis of the average demand for all products.

Production leveling, also called "Heijunka", assumes that efficient work requires a constant flow, a rhythm and a standardized regular and invariant work.

Production leveling thus makes it possible to balance workloads and minimize waste (stocks and work in progress, scrap, overtime, etc.) while meeting demand within the expected deadlines through proportional and stable production.

Related definitions

Scheduling Lean Management Just In Time | JIT Constraints Based Optimization