Lean is a philosophy of work, an approach that has evolved from the application of two concepts:

1. Continuous improvement

2. Respect for peopleNumerous large corporate organisations and public sector organisations have now applied the Lean methodology to their administrative processes, thus coining the phase 'Lean Service'.

Numerous large corporate organisations and public sector organisations have now applied the Lean methodology to their administrative processes, thus coining the phase 'Lean Service'.

For Lean to provide the most benefit to an organisation, it must become part of the 'philosophy' of that organisation. The best Lean organisations are always thin about how they can improve what they do.

The ideas behind what is now termed lean thinking were originally developed in Toyota's manufacturing operations - known as the Toyota Production System - and spread through its supply base in the 1970's, and its distribution and sales operations in the 1980's.

The term was popularised in the seminal book The Machine that Changed the World (Womack, Jones & Roos, 1990), which clearly illustrated - for the first time - the significant performance gap between the Japanese and western automotive industries. It described the key elements accounting for this superior performance as lean production - 'lean' because Japanese business methods used less of everything - human effort, capital investment, facilities, inventories and time - in manufacturing, product development, parts supply and customer relations.

The popularity of this book arises form the fact that it 'decoded the DNA' of the Japanese system , and formulated universal principles, from which a variety of industries could customize according to their requirements