#5 There are FIVE overriding principles to Lean Thinking
1. Identify Customers and Specify Value – The starting point is to recognize that only a
small fraction of the total time and effort in any organization actually adds value for the
end customer. By clearly defining Value for a specific product or service from the end
customer’s perspective, all the non-value activities – or waste – can be targeted for removal.
2. Identify and Map the Value Stream – The Value Stream is the entire set of activities
across all parts of the organization involved in jointly delivering the product or service.
This represents the end-to-end process that delivers the value to the customer. Once you
understand what your customer wants the next step is to identify how you are delivering
(or not) that to them.
3. Create Flow by Eliminating Waste – Typically when you first map the Value Stream
you will find that only 5% of activities add value, this can rise to 45% in a service
environment. Eliminating this waste ensures that your product or service “flows” to the
customer without any interruption, detour or waiting.
4. Respond to Customer Pull – This is about understanding the customer demand on your
service and then creating your process to respond to this. Such that you produce only what
the customer wants when the customer wants it.
5. Pursue Perfection – Creating flow and pull starts with radically reorganizing individual
process steps, but the gains become truly significant as all the steps link together. As this
