Lean production

Lean production is a business system for organizing and managing product development, operations, suppliers, and customer relations. It requires less human effort, space, capital, material, and time than mass production to make products with fewer defects to precise customer requirements. It was pioneered by Toyota after World War II; the term was coined by John Krafcik in the late 1980s.

Source checked2/2 values · 2026-10-25System

Specification

1 source

Kind	system
Origin	Toyota, after World War II

Study notes

Pioneered by Toyota after World War II.
Term coined by John Krafcik, a research assistant at MIT with the International Motor Vehicle Program, in the late 1980s.
As of 1990, typically required half the human effort, half the manufacturing space, and half the capital investment for a given amount of capacity compared with mass production.
As of 1990, typically required a fraction of the development and lead time of mass production systems.
As of 1990, made products in wider variety at lower volumes with many fewer defects.
Source cited: Womack, Jones, and Roos 1990, p. 13.
Document cross-references Toyota Production System and compares with Mass Production.