ABSTRACT
Since Womack et al. (1990) published “The Machine that Changed the World”, showing the results of an
international assembly plant benchmarking study carried out by the MIT International Motor Vehicle Program,
the Lean Production paradigm, initially based on the Toyota Production System, has been applied successfully by
an increasing number of leading companies within the automotive industry. Currently, Lean methodologies and
tools have already shown their potential, both in manufacturing and service sectors, to improve dramatically
productivity, speed, responsiveness, delivered value, and profits. Lean Manufacturing has also been applied by
large companies in the agri-food sector, but there is little information on these applications available in the
scientific literature. Similarly to applications of other Total Quality Management improvement methodologies
such as Six Sigma, highly specialized consulting companies are playing a major role in supporting and facilitating
their introduction in large companies. However, it is not clear whether these methodologies can be applied to
SMEs following the same patterns. This paper illustrates the application of the Lean Production methodology in
an egg producing medium enterprise. In this initiative, a team from the Technical University of Madrid and
consultants from Galgano Group, a consulting company with an extensive experience in Lean Production, have
collaborated under the financial support of the Spanish Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology
(CDTI). Preliminary results as well as strengths and weaknesses of the Lean methodology applied in this specific
context are discussed.