Lean is an organization-wide cultural change initiative focused on enhancing customer value through the relentless elimination of non-value-adding waste. By removing waste from processes, products and services flow more smoothly while emphasis is placed on optimizing value-adding activities, or those the customer is willing to pay for.
Based on successful applications of lean philosophies and practices in manufacturing processes, the benefits of lean sigma transformation have expanded to include all organizational functions, the entire supply chain, and non-manufacturing entities such as government, healthcare, education, retail and services.