Lean Management: What It Actually Is (and Why Most Companies Get It Wrong)

What Lean Management? Lean management is a systematic approach to identifying and removing waste in a process while continuously improving how work gets done. It grew out of the Toyota Production System, developed in Japan after World War II, when Toyota had none of the capital or scale of American automakers and had to figure out how to compete anyway. Their answer wasn't "work harder." It was "stop doing things that don't matter." The Eight Wastes Lean Tries to Eliminate Lean practitioners often use the acronym DOWNTIME to remember the eight categories of waste: • Defects — errors that require rework • Overproduction — making more than what's needed, sooner than it's needed • Waiting — idle time between steps • Non-utilized talent — skilled people doing low-value tasks • Transportation — unnecessary movement of materials or information • Inventory — excess stock or unfinished work sitting idle • Motion — unnecessary movement by people • Extra processing — doing more work than the customer actually needs