Lean, Lean Manufacturing, or Lean Thinking. The term was used in the book “The Machine the Changed the World” by Womack Jones and Roos. “Lean” has been described as “to produce only what’s needed when it’s needed using minimum resources”, and “A manufacturing philosophy that shortens the timeline between the customer order and the shipment by eliminating waste” (John Shook).
For any operation (manufacturing transactional and service) lean thinking promotes flow to the customer, shortens lead times, drives out waste and improves customer satisfaction. To implement lean is to apply the principles of the Toyota Production System as appropriate to one’s own organization (be it manufacturing transactional or service) with a philosophy of continuous improvement.
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