From lean production to operational excellence

This chapter looks at the emergence and evolution of Lean Production through to the concepts of Operational Excellence that companies are striving to achieve. This chapter builds on this and demonstrates that, despite the many criticisms of Lean and the lack of formal definition, Lean has emerged as a dominant global operations management (OM) paradigm focused on reducing variability and compressing time in order to improve flow. The link between Lean and the Theory of Swift, Even Flow contributes to theory development in OM. Production and Operations Management has seen many changes since it first emerged as an academic discipline. One of the most significant of these changes was the emergence of Lean Production and the worldwide interest in Japanese manufacturing processes. Sakichi Toyoda, the inventor of Japan's first power loom, is acknowledged to have developed the philosophy and methods of Jidoka: mistake-proofing and autonomation