Lean Manufacturing
To remain competitive in the face of the increased global competition, firms around the world
are adopting new manufacturing technologies. These include just-in-time inventory methods
to reduce the cost and waste of maintaining large levels of raw materials and unfinished product.
Also, many firms are adopting the lean methods applied in Japanese manufacturing that
have produced significant cost and quality improvements through the use of quality teams
and statistical quality control. Other manufacturing changes include flexible manufacturing
techniques developed to reduce setup times and allow fast turnaround of customer orders. A
key competitive edge in what is called speed-to-market is the ability to deliver the product or
service faster than the competition.