Traditionally, Lean has been more closely associated with production and manufacturing operations. At the outset of Lean in GE, the Supply Chain organization and its manufacturing locations were the primary focal points of Lean activity, concentrating on shortening the cycle from customer order to delivery, and targeting essential areas that hold the potential for substantial improvement.

According to Womack and Jones, there are five lean principles.

a) Specify value from the standpoint of the end customer by product family.

b) Identify all the steps in the value stream for each product family, eliminating steps and actions which do not create value.

c) Make the remaining value-creating steps occur in a tight and integrated sequence, making the product flow smoothly toward the customer.

d) As flow is introduced, let customers pull value from the next upstream activity.

e) Continue efforts to eliminate further waste and pursue perfection through continuous improvement.

 Lean Process Deployment

Waiting :Also known as queuing, waiting refers to the periods of inactivity in a downstream process that occur because an upstream activity does not deliver on time. Idle downstream resources are then often used in activities that either don’t add value or result in overproduction.

Transport : This is unnecessary motion or movement of materials, such as work-in-process (WIP) being transported from one operation to another. Ideally transport should be minimized for two reasons; It adds time to the process during which no value-added activity is being performed. # Handling damage could be incurred

Extra Processing :This term refers to extra operations, such as rework, reprocessing, handling or storage that occurs because of defects, overproduction or excess inventory.

Inventory :This refers to inventory that is not directly required to fulfill current Customer orders. Inventory includes raw materials, work-in-process and finished goods. Inventory all requires additional handling and space.

Motion :This term refers to the extra steps taken by employees and equipment to accommodate inefficient process layout, defects, reprocessing, overproduction or excess inventory. Motion takes time and adds no value to the product or service.

Defects :These are products or services that do not conform to the specification or Customer’s expectation, thus causing Customer dissatisfaction.