For other uses, see Tile (disambiguation). A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, or even glass, generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops.
Model of the lean production system. Lean manufacturing or lean production, often simply lean, is a systematic method for the elimination of waste (Muda) within a manufacturing system. Lean also takes into account waste created through overburden (Muri) and waste created through unevenness in work loads (Mura).
Unless an engineer is directly involved in manufacturing, he or she may only be slightly familiar with âleanâ principles. Long considered a way to greatly improve manufacturing efficiency, lean can be applied to any business or production process, in any industry.