June 1, 2009 at 4:00 am
LEAN, THE practice of continually identifying and eliminating waste in an organization, is very often a misunderstood term or phrase. Too many people associate it with the phrase "Lean and Mean," which has become a euphemism for laying people off, working with too few staff, working staff long hours and micromanaging every activity to lower costs—often at the expense of quality. It's ironic, then, that the practice of Lean is the exact opposite of the phrase "Lean and Mean."
