“Lean production is a superior way for humans to make things. It provides better products in wider variety at lower cost. Equally, important, it provides more challenging and fulfilling work for employees at every level, from the factory to headquarters.”

–The Machine the Changed the World by James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones, and Daniel Roos (Simon and Shuster, 1991)
p. 231.

Note from Ray: Lean applies to far more than manufacturing. It works in areas such as office administration, food service, insurance claim processing, and software programming. As a result, I would change the definition above slightly to read, “Lean is a superior way for humans to create value…” I suspect the authors would agree.