Industrial Engineer Engineering and Management Solutions at Work

February 2011    |    Volume: 43    |    Number: 2

The member magazine of the Institute of Industrial Engineers

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Confessions of a lean lunatic

How one entrepreneur used Toyota methods to transform his company

By Greg Lane

With North America and Europe losing a large share of traditional high-volume manufacturing to offshore competition and low-cost country sourcing, the West is left with predominately short lead-time products, engineered products or other high-variation/low-volume items. This begs the question as to whether lean methods and a bit of common sense can increase profitability when businesses produce or sell a high variation of products at lower volumes.


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