Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Lean Operations
Prepared by:
Heather Kruse
Kirsten Peters
Jeff Ellsworth
Amity Westphalen
What is Lean?
Lean production originally started as an assembly-line manufacturing methodology developed for
Toyota and the manufacturers of automobiles during the 1980’s. Some people still know it as the
“Toyota Production System.” Engineer Taiichi Ohno is credited with developing the lean
production methods and says that the goal of lean production is, “to get the right things to the
right place at the right time, the first time, while minimizing waste and being open to change.” It
has been discovered that in addition to eliminating waste, his ideas have led to improved product
flow and better quality.2
Today, lean manufacturing is implemented by companies such as Dell Computer, Ford, GM,
Cisco, Honeywell and Rockwell Int’l.5 Reports have been made that these companies have
improved productivity of workers by 25 to 40 percent, reduced required manufacturing space by
50 percent, virtually eliminated defective returns and achieved six sigma quality.1 Lean
production has become a set of guiding principles that encourages a continuously improving
organization and is not limited to assembly line procedures. Lean strategies are now applied to
every department of a company. Lean management requires human resources and quantitative
methods to work together to improve the materials and services supplied to and from an
organization, as well as the processes within the organization and the quality of the consumer
satisfaction.3
1. Henderson, Bruce A. “Lean Transformation: How to Change Your Business into a Lean
Enterprise.” Oaklea Press, July 1999.