"Lean Extended"

Richard Schonberger

Industrial Engineer

December 2005, pp. 26-31

Richard Schonberger was one of the earlier writers on Japanese Manufacturing techniques. Schonberger now argues that companies such as Wal-Mart and Dell Computer have brought new principles that should be added to the original concept of Lean manufacturing as practiced in the U. S. In this article, Schonberger shows that inventory turns at Toyota have decreased from 22.9 to 12.5 in the last 10 years. Dell has increased from about 30 inventory turns to 88 in the same time period. Wal-Mart has increased from 4.7 to 7.7.

Schonberger presents the following differences between Lean as traditionally practiced and what he calls "Lean extended":

• Lean extended focuses less internally on the factory and more outward to customer/supplier collaboration
• Lean extended has suppliers as full collaborators, rather than in a "teacher/pupil" partnership
• Lean extended has more joint planning, as opposed to more functional independence
• Lean extended moves from the primary focus on attacking wastes to providing customer-focused better quality, quicker response, greater flexibility, and higher value

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