“Remember the law of entropy¹, in which organized systems tend to move toward states of increasing disorganization? Lean production and Lean management are not physics, but the law of entropy nevertheless seems to apply. Ease off on focus on discipline and your Lean systems will quickly deteriorate along with their hoped for results.”
Creating a Lean Culture, 3rd Edition by David Mann (CRC Press, 2015), p. 33.

1. Pronounced, “ENT-row-pee.” Long ago, scientists noticed this: things that are organized naturally tend to become disorganized over time. For example, if you put a hot cup of coffee on the counter and wait 8 hours, it naturally cools to room temperature. The heat is no longer “organized” into the coffee. It has become evenly distributed throughout the room. Scientists named this natural tendency “Entropy.” It’s like gravity: a downward pull towards disorder that is always active. The only way to counteract entropy is to add energy from the outside (for example, by re-heating the coffee). Toyota and other Lean experts observed that human and production systems show the same behavior. If we do nothing, they tend to decline.
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