The lean approach is an idealizing improvement approach that has an enormous impact in the
field of Operations Management. The approach is basically very process oriented and there was
less attention first for planning and control, this being the profession of dealing with all kind of
non-ideal manufacturing and supply-chain restrictions. During the last years, however, planning
and control have been integrated in the lean approach, leading to the concept of lean planning.
Cyclic schedules form an important element of lean planning, certainly in the (semi-) process
industry.