ORIGINS OF LEAN 
                                          THINKING...?
                                                                                              WW2 Boeing B17 bomber
         Venetian ship builders
                                                            Carthaginian navy
                                                                                                                     My great 
                                                                                                                     uncle’s 
                                                                                                                     WW1 
                                                                                                                     Waltham 
                                                                                                                     watch
       th
    18  century RN frigate gun                                  Colt Armoury
                                                                                       Lean Thinking Evolution
  FW Taylor & Scientific 
    Management     DEVELOPMENT OF LEAN
                 W Edwards Deming
                                                 Henry Ford
             Frank 
           Woollard
                                                    Schonberger
                         TWI            Lean Thinking Evolution
   Masaaki Imai
            “THE MACHINE THAT 
          CHANGED THE WORLD”
      Term lean first popularised in 
      1990 book
        Womack, Jones & Roos - MIT 
        study
      Illustrated performance gap 
      between Japanese & western 
      automotive industries
        superior performance due to 
        “lean production” 
      ‘Lean’ -ie used less of 
      everything
        HUMAN EFFORT, CAPITAL, SPACE, 
                                     Lean Thinking Evolution
        STOCK, TIME - in all activities
              “LEAN THINKING”
      Lean Thinking (Womack & Jones, 
      1996)
      Demonstrated application in other 
      sectors
      Described range of tools & techniques
      Lean ‘vocabulary’, eg
        Kaizen, Kaikaku, Hoshin Kanri
        JIT, Muda
                 “Great packaging 
                 “Great packaging 
      “Lean Principles” put forward
                      job!”
                      job!”
                                   Lean Thinking Evolution
          FIVE LEAN PRINCIPLES
   1. Specify what creates value from the 
      customers perspective 
   2. Identify all steps across the whole 
      value stream
   3. Make those actions that create value 
      flow
   4. Only make what is pulled by the 
      customer just-in-time
   5. Strive for perfection by continually 
            How valid are the 5 principles today?
      removing successive layers of waste
                                   Lean Thinking Evolution