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The term lean thinking was coined by James P. Womack and Daniel T.Jones to capture the essence of their in-depth study of Toyotaʼs fabled Toyota Production System. 

Lean thinking is a new way of thinking any activity and seeing the waste inadvertently generated by the way the process is organized by focusing on the concepts of:

1. Value
2. Value streams
3. Flow
4. Pull
5. Perfection

The complete details can read in

The Essentials of Lean Manufacturing eBook.

Lean thinking was born out of studying the rise of Toyota Motor Company from a bankrupt Japanese automaker in the early 1950s to todayʼs dominant global player. At every stage of its expansion, Toyota remained a puzzle by being capturing new markets with products deemed relatively unattractive and with systematically lower costs while not following any of the usual management dictates. 

"Lean thinking was born out of studying the rise of Toyota Motor Company from a bankrupt Japanese automaker in the early 1950s to todayʼs dominant global player."

Ever since Santa heard about our NEW Nucleus Lithium Power System, he has been ordering them to put in Christmas stockings around the world to those on his “nice list”.  He appreciates the smaller and lighter power packs and how easy it will be to drop down the chimney with them.

The first thing Santa did was attach a couple of power supplies to the sleigh for a test. 

In fact, since the power pack can be charged by plugging into a regular outlet, he finds places along his route to plug and recharge. (For instance, the sleigh can be parked a while on the roof of a sky scraper and has proven a great opportunity to give the portable power supply a quick charge.)

While it’s important for lean consultants to stay on top of current trends in lean manufacturing, it is difficult to keep up with advances in technology and new opportunities. For instance there is new warehouse cart technology available that reduces waste. Here are five new trends in lean manufacturing we believe you will want to know about:

Get the free "NEW TRENDS IN LEAN MANUFACTURING THAT
WILL IMPACT THE FUTURE" White Paper Here.

1. Strength-Based Lean Thinking

Most applications of lean thinking begin with an assumption that there is a theoretical “perfect state” for each organizational process and that the current state deviates from the perfect state due to inefficiencies and waste.

The strength-based approach to lean has a different focus. Instead of focusing on what is not working and inefficient, it teaches how to identify what is already working efficiently and generates value in existing processes and systems (this is called “strength focus”).

The strength-based approach to lean is more natural to work with and more sustainable in the long term.

Leveraging current or past knowledge, and accessing experiences and successes from within the system, are great resources for the next generation of improvement initiatives. They also provide motivation for everyone to face the challenges and opportunities ahead.