Success in today's global market requires change. Its important to start by changing your thinking first, because if you can't change your thinking, you can't change anything. Successful change is achieved by discovering new ways to effectively re-organize and align all of your business processes to increase throughput, reduce costs and improve quality. What's the easiest way to do this? Changing your organization into a Lean Enterprise!

Lean Manufacturing philosophy and techniques are rooted in the Toyota Production System (TPS). The key focus of TPS is the elimination waste (muda). TPS uses many different tools to identify and eliminate waste i.e. Kaizen, Value Stream Mapping, SMED, 5S, Standard Work,etc. TPS has been successfully implemented by many organizations worldwide and several of these organizations have achieved the total integration of Lean principles into their business model. This level of Lean Manufacturing application is commonly referred to as "World Class", these companies are recognized for their agility and performance which sets them apart from others in their field.

Lean Manufacturing techniques were developed in the manufacturing sector but companies soon realized that all manufacturing processes are initiated by non-manufacturing activities. Information determines the next items to be scheduled, manufactured and shipped to the customer. This information is usually in the form of a piece of paper (order, traveler, etc) generated by a non-manufacturing department. Many companies, who have implemented Lean Manufacturing principles, soon began to manufacturing their products in hours, but it still took days or even weeks to generate the paperwork (customer order, prints, material purchases, etc.) required to initiate their manufacturing processes. It was this realization that led to the concept of a Lean Enterprise. A Lean Enterprise is an organization that has fully integrated Lean philosophy and techniques into its business model.

Today, Lean philosophy and techniques are used throughout the globe in various business sectors, these include many non-manufacturing and service industries, i.e. Hospitals, IT, Military, Government and Education.