The purpose of Lean is to provide services or produce products with minimum use of resources by eliminating waste. The waste in the organization is looked from the perspective of ultimate customer. If we are doing something that does not add value for the customer then it is waste.
The concept of Lean was popularized by the publication of book “Lean Thinking “by James Womack and Daniel Jones. Credit for developing Lean concepts are given to Henry Ford when he introduced first automotive assembly line to produce Model T Ford and then to Taiichi Ohno for developing Toyota Production System.
Lean concepts are now applied not only in discrete manufacturing, but also in offices, in the medical field and wherever products are produced and services are delivered.