The thought process of lean was thoroughly described in the book The Machine That Changed the World (1990) by James P. Womack, Daniel Roos, and Daniel T. Jones.
In a subsequent volume, Lean Thinking (1996), James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones distilled these lean principles even further, to five:
- Specify the value desired by the customer
- Identify the value stream for each product or service providing that value and challenge all of the wasted steps (generally nine out of ten) currently necessary to provide it
- Make the process flow continuously
- Introduce pull between all steps where continuous flow is possible
- Manage toward perfection
You may feel that your Operation is in a downward spiral with things getting worse and worse….
….applying the 5 Lean Principles stops the downward spiral and turns the direction around – opening the Positive Jaws