Manufacturers are climbing on the lean bandwagon in droves. The Industry Week/MPI Census of Manufacturers, released in November 2007, shows that nearly 70 percent of all plants in the U.S. are currently employing lean manufacturing as an improvement methodology. But is lean right for every company?
A further look at the same IW/MPI survey may provide a clue. Only 2 percent of companies who responded to the survey have fully achieved their objectives and less than a quarter of all companies (24 percent) reported achieving significant results. That leaves 74 percent of the responding companies admitting that they are not making good progress with lean--at least at the time of the survey.
Source: Industry Week, http://industryweek.com