Embracing the five lean principles

Purpose - To consider how the development of a customer driven approach to supply chain management can help companies survive and thrive through an economic downturn. Design/methodology/approach - Outlines a customer driven approach that embraces three powerful concepts: strategic, enterprise-wide, customer, internal, and supplier alignment; the philosophy of lean and its five principles - understand customer value, develop value streams, make it flow, at the pull of the customer, and in pursuit of perfection; and the output from the Cranfield University Innovative Manufacturing research Council's project 'Aligning and Integrating Marketing and Supply Chain Strategies'. Originality/value - Illustrates the inclusion of lean principles within a customer driven approach to the supply chain operation