We serve our clients with the belief that succesfull Lean Systems implementation is based on mastering 3 disciplines:
1. Industrial Engineering
2. Organizational Development
3. Systems Theory

Manyards 1st Edition Industrial Engineering Handbook is likley the most representational text on how Toyota applies Methods Engineering. The 8 wastes (orginated from process charting), Ford's Work Simplification program (is known today as Kaizen Events) and the Man-Machine Chart (is Toyota's combination table). All of these techniques orginated from Manyard's IE handbook published in 1957 from 81 consultants.

Organizational Development is a field that tries to make the complex workings of a company simple and easy to understand. OD uses abstraction and generalization to help managers and leaders make sense of the world around them. The best managers can only hold in theirmind six or seven variables at one time, which makes the need to generalize an important skill in decision making.

A systems perspective can be problematic for lean implementation because most of the emphasis in lean implementation has been the identification of a part or piece of TPS (Toyota Production System). Unfortunately, implementing one element of TPS can often weaken the entire system if interactions are not well understood. Most companies find it less appealing to hear that the solution has to be an entire one, instead of a partial one.