Apply lean thinking to a value stream to create a lean enterprise

Discusses how Womack and Jones' (1991) book, ‘The Machine that Changed the World’ found the gaps in productivity quality and time between Western and Japanese car firms, and showed a better way to organize and manage customer relations, the supply chain, product development and production operations — pioneered by Toyota and called lean production. Concludes that breaking down barriers in the West will be difficult — because the joint analysis of every action along the channel will make every firm's costs apparent — excluding privacy.