... labour, capital and time. As a result, lean producers are also able to design new products quicker and can offer customers a wider range of products to choose from. Lean production involves using a range of practices designed to reduce waste and to improve productivity and quality. Lean Thinking can be applied to any organisation in any sector; although its origins are firmly in an automotive production environment, the principles and techniques are transferable often with little adaptation. There is a wealth of case study evidence that backs up this assertion. Lean Thinking (Womack and Jones, 1996) showed how firms in several industries in North America, Europe and Japan followed this path and has doubled their performance while reducing inventories, throughput times and errors reaching the customer by 90%. These results are found in all kinds of activities, including order processing, product development, manufacturing, warehousing, distribution and retailing. From this ...

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