5. The right company

In the 1990s, the concept of lean enterprise emerged following the work of Womack and Jones .

Industries as diverse as aerospace and construction are adopting improvement programs such as just-in-time, lean manufacturing and total quality management, in a quest to eliminate waste from operational activities. Despite these relentless efforts, results often fall short of expectations.

The major problem is that – and this is still often the case today – this type of program is perceived as a series of isolated cures to specific problems such as the elimination of excess inventory. A closer look reveals that...