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Chapter 4
The Lean Improvement Model
In Chapter 3, we introduced some of the basic concepts of Operations
Management (OM) and indicated that this provided a context for understand-
ing Lean. Now, we would like to provide a more detailed look at Lean con-
cepts, as well as background and some of the distinguishing characteristics
of what is sometimes referred to as the Lean Approach.
The elements of the Lean Approach, which we will discuss in this chap-
ter, can be brought together within what we call the Lean Improvement
Model. This is our shorthand way of referring to a somewhat prescriptive
representation of the Lean Approach, and in a sense