Although Lean was conceived and first implemented in the manufacturing industry, its fundamental principles can be applied to many other business models. Womack and Jones have summarized the basic principles of Lean in The Machine that Changed the World. With this book, Womack and Jones are credited with spreading the idea of Lean production outside the Japanese manufacturing industries, which then became a global phenomenon.
Five Fundamental Principles of Lean:
- Value: Precisely specifying the value of each product or service
- Value stream: Identify the value stream for each product
- Flow: Make value flow without interruption (remove batching and wait times)
- Pull: Let the customer pull the value from the producer
- Perfection: The idea that good is never good enough, that pursuing excellence is a continuing process
