Lean Primer

Abstract

Lean thinking is a proven system that applies to product development and production, as evidenced by Toyota and others. And although most often applied to products, it is also used in service areas—both within Toyota and in domains such as health care1. The image and metaphor we like to convey a key thinking mis- take—and opportunity—is the sport of relay racing. Consider the relay racers standing around waiting for the baton from their running colleague. The accountant in the finance depart- ment, looking aghast at this terrible underutilization ‘waste’ indi- cated in some report, would probably mandate a policy goal of “95% utilization of resources” to ensure all the racers are busy and ‘pro- ductive.’ Maybe—he suggests—the runners could run three races at the same time to increase “resource utilization,” or run up a mountain while waiting. Funny…but this kind of thinking lies behind much of traditional management and processes in development and other domains.2 Of course, in contrast, here is a central idea in lean thinking: Watch the baton, not the runners.