characteristics. Traditional batch production is not equipped to deal with product variety; furthermore, move and wait time are sources of waste. Batches must wait for a preceding batch and a subsequent setup before beginning a process. Once a batch starts a process, units are processed sequentially; as units are finished they must wait for other units in the batch to be finished before the entire batch moves to the next process. For example, if a department can process one unit every five minutes, then the first unit of a batch of 10 will be completed after five minutes but must then wait an additional 45 minutes for the remaining units to be completed before mov-ing to the next process. Thus, there is pre-process waiting and post-process waiting. Lean manufacturing reduces wait and move time dramatically and allows the produc-tion of small batches (low volume) of differing products (high variety). The key fac-tors in achieving these outcomes are lower setup times and cellular manufacturing.