Lean Thinking is a highly evolved method of managing an organization to improve the productivity, efficiency and quality of its products or services. Japanese and American management specialists developed the ideas and methods over the latter half of the last century. These management techniques have been employed both in the aerospace industry (Boeing) and in the auto sector (Toyota). In the manufacturing sector, the concept is sometimes referred to as World Class Manufacturing or High Performance Manufacturing. Lean thinking is best illustrated by using the manufacturing example.

Lean Manufacturing is derived from the methods of the successful Japanese automobile manufacturer, Toyota. Lean Manufacturing became internationally recognized as a result of the book The Machine That Changed the World by James Womack and Dan Jones. The focus at Toyota, according to Taichi Ohno, was "the absolute elimination of waste," where waste is anything that prevents the value-added flow of material from raw material to finished goods.[1] A firm's customers are the final judges as to whether or not the firm has created value. The Lean approach leads its practitioners to improve their organizations by focusing on the elimination of any and all waste.[2] Lean focuses on improvement and advocates techniques to control the flow of material on the shop floor. As companies implemented Lean in North America, there were many variations of the same theme, but a number of principles were generally agreed upon.

1. The batch-and-queue mode of operation, which encourages large-batch processing and focuses on the efficiency of individual machines and workers, was an outdated model.
2. Lean manufacturing, which views continuous, one-piece flow as the ideal, and emphasizes optimizing and integrating systems of people, machines, materials, and facilities, can lead to significant improvements in quality, cost, on-time delivery, and performance.
3. Lean manufacturing is a fundamental transformation of an enterprise and needs to be approached as a total organizational and cultural transformation.[1]

Lean companies work to precisely define value in terms of specific products with identified capabilities offered at set prices through a dialogue with their customers.[3] The process involves learning to adopt and employ a series of tools and techniques to achieve incremental improvements in an organization. Above all, Lean Thinking methods are inclusive of all employees and involve a major change in the embedded attitudes of the individuals that make up the organizations.

Lean tools such as Value Stream Mapping, Quick Changeover/Setup Reduction, Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED), Kaizen, Cellular/Flow Manufacturing, Visual Workplace/5S Good Housekeeping, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), and Pull/Kanban Systems are used to produce change. Companies and organizations employing these lean tools report significant gains in productivity and overall effectiveness within their specific entities.

Lean manufacturing "Uses less of everything compared with mass production - half the human effort in the factory, half the manufacturing floor space, half the investment in tools, half the engineering hours to develop a new product in half the time. Also it requires keeping far less than half the needed inventory on site (and) results in…fewer defects…[4] This is accomplished through: Teamwork, Communication, Efficient use of resources & Continuous improvement.

"What is Lean Thinking" is taken from the report "A Feasibility Study to Establish a Lean Institute in Manitoba: Findings and Recommendations"