Lean initiatives are often narrowly defined based on a market snapshot rather than an understanding that market conditions continuously change, and market events can occur that can disrupt existing plans. These initiatives result in excessive trimming in an attempt to take out inventories from the entire supply chain, which makes it difficult to react quickly to market events. Companies should adopt agile strategies to be responsive to market events.

-Nari Viswanathan, research director at AberdeenGroup