The Lean CFO

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The Economics of Lean

INTRODUCTION

e rst question I always ask when I begin a seminar or an event with

a company is: “What is Lean?” I ask everyone to say whatever comes to

their mind and always get a wide variety of responses. is simple exercise

demonstrates that Lean usually means dierent things to people, and the

common thread to their responses is that people usually answer the ques-

tion based on their role in the company or the department in which they

work. One of the keys to nancial success with Lean is that it has to mean

the same thing to everyone in the company.

LEAN IS THE STRATEGY

To achieve nancial success with Lean, it must ...