At the latest years, is most common read and listen the term "Lean" or "Lean Manufacturing" as a trend in many industrial Branches.
Lean is the continuous elimination of unnecessary, non-value added steps within a process. It has two principles: Flow and Pull.
The principle of flow dates back to the Ford Motor Company in the early twentieth century when Mr. Henry Ford introduced the assembly line process to produce the Model T. The restocking process in a supermarket can illustrate the principle of customer pull.
Toyota was no doubt one of the first companies to successfully combine these two concepts and today it is Toyota Production System (TPS) is the flag bearer of what is now commonly called Lean.
The concepts of value, making value flow uninterrupted of all activities that do not contribute value to the customer serve as the foundation of lean.
Jorge T. Reyna´s Blog (NDT, Welding, Concrete & Coatings)