Lean community leaders have recently made two huge changes in how they present Lean. The first change is Lean as a management system rather than “Lean manufacturing.” Second, they are finally taking note of the long-established “Respect for People” principle. Why now? In part because there have been so few successful Lean transformations over the last 20 years. Another reason is that most other aspects of the Lean management system have been studied in detail, so this is the next territory to explore. This batch-and-queue non-integrative approach has severely increased the lead-time needed to properly educate people about Lean management – particularly the “Respect for People” principle.

Read the paper by Bob Emiliani (PDF)