Lean production emerged as a management technique in the late 1980s as a means of taking labour out of production and time out of labour.

It streamlines work, reducing the number of jobs and the labour needed to complete a job by a number of methods:

Outsourcing, for example, takes labour out of a company's production and sends it to another source with lower wages.

Work is intensified: longer hours, fewer minutes or seconds to complete each task, more work in any given time period, more regimented work practices, simpler tasks thus quicker assembly.

Elimination of non-value added work, such as: (in other words, the goal is to get 60 seconds of work in every minute) walking, moving parts and materials, reading work orders, inspecting, repairing.

Elimination of any waiting time, i.e. for machine cycles, set-up, material, etc.

It is also called TQM (Total Quality Management), Synchronous manufacturing and Continuous Improvement. Lean production is applied throughout manufacturing, in auto assembly and auto parts, rail and airline transport, health care, and the list goes on.

The Price of Lean and Mean

For workers, lean and mean production translates into speed-up, more stress, faster repetitive motions, lack of control over the pace and method of work, continuous pressure, growing insecurity, increasing health and safety problems (i.e. repetitive strain injuries), less time with their families.

Verdict Among Companies Not Unanimous

Among 500 U.S. firms surveyed by Arthur D. Little only a third reported their TQM programs had a significant impact on their competitiveness. [See Total Quality Muddle, Report on Business Magazine, November 1992]


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