What is Lean Thinking?
Lean Thinking is the dynamic, knowledge-driven, and customer focused process through which all people in a defined enterprise continuously eliminate waste with the goal of creating value. More than ever, today’s organizations need to operate in the most economical fashion, taking less time to deliver higher quality products and services. The key is elimination of non-value added activities through involvement of all employees in continuous improvement approaches. An enterprise approach is essential to overcome “sub optimization” and to improve processes that span multiple organizational elements. The term “lean” was coined by researchers in MIT’s International Motor Vehicle Program to describe the production paradigm emerging from the Japanese automotive industry. However, lean thinking is not specific to the automotive or any other sector or operation, and is being widely applied in manufacturing, healthcare, services, and government enterprises. Lean thinking encompasses six sigma qu
