Survey Shows that Print is Getting Lean

Lean manufacturing—often simply called “Lean”—is the term used to describe the management and production methodologies that were originally developed by the Toyota Motor Corporation. Lean focuses on avoiding and eliminating the seven wastes—defective products, overproduction, excessive work-in-process inventory, over-processing, unnecessary movement of people, unnecessary movement of products, and waiting. In the late 1980s, many U.S. companies, primarily in the automotive industry, began to implement Lean practices in order to narrow the productivity gap with their Japanese competitors.