Lean manufacturing, or simply lean, has become an immensely popular business improvement methodology in recent years.  Research suggests that 70 percent of manufacturing firms are using lean in their business operations.  Lean was initially focused on improving manufacturing operations, but is now used to improve product development, order processing, and a variety of other non-manufacturing processes.  Lean’s popularity has both resulted from, and been driven by, an explosion in the volume of lean-related educational resources.  Amazon offers almost 1,800 books and other materials about lean, and Yahoo hosts over 90 online discussion groups relating to lean.  Colleges and universities, industry trade associations, and private consulting firms routinely offer courses, seminars, and conferences to explain what lean is and how to use it.

This abundance of resources is actually a mixed blessing for managers who are just now becoming interested in lean.  On one hand, today’s mangers don’t have to search very far to find lean materials or programs.  But the wealth of lean resources can also be a source of confusion for two main reasons.  First of all, there is no universal definition of lean and little agreement about what the truly core principles of lean are.  Therefore, lean experts often approach the subject from differing perspectives and describe lean in very different ways.  Then to make matters worse, lean is a topic that produces a significant amount of zealotry.  So, many experts strongly argue that their particular “brand” of lean is the one right way to implement and use lean.  In these circumstances, it’s no wonder that managers become confused about where and how to begin.

Printing company managers face an additional challenge when it comes to learning about or implementing lean.  The vast majority of lean materials and programs describe how lean is used by “assembly-line” manufacturing firms.  There are far fewer resources that describe how lean can be implemented by custom manufacturing companies or job shops.  In addition, most lean tools and techniques were originally developed to improve repetitive manufacturing operations, and many of those tools and techniques are not particularly useful or effective in a custom manufacturing setting like printing.