ABSTRACT
The printing industry has experienced great disruption over the past 500 years. Since around
1440, when Gutenberg invented the highly durable and moveable type, composed of lead, tin,
and antimony, the world of communication has progressed exponentially. Gutenberg-as we
think in the printing industry-was one of the first adopters to apply lean principles unknowingly.
He devised a way to mass produce letters, symbols, and numbers by developing a matrix in to
which he poured type metal to create fonts. These metal types could then be stored and sorted
into boxes for each retrieval and replacement. Although moveable type had been invented
hundreds of years earlier in China (made of clay and later weaker, less durable metals), he was
the first to experiment with metals that could be easily mixed, poured into a form, cooled, and
hardened quickly. This invention could be seen to have sparked the Reformation, educating
communities and enhancing literacy across the globe. He was the father of printing and the first
entrepreneur to launch a manufacturing industry.
