ABSTRACT
The management and industrial engineering perspectives on lean production offer an overview of the improvements in terms of innovation, quality, Just-in-time inventory, supplier relations, and how to implement lean models. This chapter examines the management approach to introducing lean production in the normal flow of business and then in the development of new products. It explores the tension that exists between shareholder value theories in management that emphasize short-term results, and industrial engineering approaches that concentrate on process in the long-term. Lean production and Six Sigma are two similar but slightly different ways of approaching quality control. The management literature has less specific material on lean production than industrial engineering; however, it does have an extensive literature on organizational change. Lean production is a relatively minor area of management, mainly because it is subsumed under strategic management, which is a much larger area, and to some degree, under organizational change.
