You have heard time and again that we operate in a Global Economy. Our competition is no longer local. With the advances in communications and transportation, our major competition could be literally around the globe. The companies that survive will need to be viewed as “World Class”.

Lean principles emanate from the famed Toyota Motor System that was developed over 40 years ago. The system starts with identifying customer needs. Based on numerous surveys, customers require the highest quality with the shortest lead time and the lowest delivered cost.

Lean can be defined as “a continuous improvement strategy for identifying and eliminating non-value added activities (waste) with the involvement of all employees”. A key question to ask when viewing an activity “Is the customer willing to pay for this?” If you answer no, you have identified waste that needs to be eliminated.

The lean concept was first implemented in manufacturing but has been expanded to all types of industries. There are a number of “tools” that can be used to help achieve your goals. We will discuss them in further posts.