Lean manufacturing is the ability of a company to supply individualized consumer goods quickly and efficiently with little margin for error. It involves a team of employees and managers who can make decisive effective decisions that will continually increase production efficiency, and customer satisfaction. The single most important reason for a company to convert to lean manufacturing is the realization that, as previously stated, manufacturing is indeed a service industry. In other words, it takes more than quality, cost, and delivery commitments to ensure survival. Everyone benefits when manufacturers use lean production techniques, and consumers can get exactly what they want right when they want it (Page, 2003). What also must be considered is a company's ability to adjust quickly and effectively to demand fluctuations or changes, as well as product diversification per customer requirements and, market demands. Several manufacturing facilities today have experienced or are in the process of undergoing several dramatic, physical, and cultural transformations as a result of this global competition (Henderson - Larco, 1999). These transformations are referred to as the lean approach. Producers have to do away with the conventional manufacturing procedures such as batch that waste money and time. The changes often appear to be extreme and affect not only the way an operation is configured but also the way an organization does business. These changes will create immediate production and profit increases once fully implemented. In the process of incorporating full implementation a lean manufacturer will have to alter their production method from batch to a continual flow production method. This process produces individualized products for the consumer in a shorter and more efficient amount of time. This lean approach has led to a significant shift in the business strategies of many of North America's largest organizations.
