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Chapter 6
Lean in Administrative,
Technical, and
Professional Work
Lean is no longer just for manufacturing. The roots of Lean are deep in the
shop floor, of course, beginning with Henry Ford. But, in recent years, Lean
thinkers have found the principles and many of the tools of Lean are just as
effective in administrative, technical, professional, and healthcare processes.
(For the purposes of this chapter, the terms enterprise Lean and enterprise
business processes encompass Lean beyond manufacturing.) And, Lean man-
agement approaches are needed to sustain and extend Lean in enterprise
business processes just as in manufacturing.
This cha