The Art of Knowing When and Where to Lean

"Is Lean for the benefit of the customer or producer? One of the primary tenets of lean manufacturing is that it is all about the customer, i.e., the customer is considered to be the primary constituency of the producer and so the producer is expected to enhance the wellbeing of the customer above other stakeholders. Lean proponents suggest that the interests of the producer and its owners are secondary. Let's examine their argument which is really about the chicken and egg phenomenon where the customer is the egg and begins the process. Granted, the egg may have been the genesis, i.e., a basic need of the marketplace may have been determined and met but what happens if we have an unhappy and/or underfed chicken? The cycle would immediately cease."