GE first implemented lean principles into their project management operations, yet initial results were unsatisfactory. To address the situation, employees received training in lean practices while workflow processes were reviewed to identify any wasteful practices.

1. Walmart

Walmart exemplifies lean manufacturing in several ways. Their supply chain focuses on strategic sourcing - finding suppliers who can handle volume at the lowest possible cost and thus streamlining unneeded links in the chain, helping make overall process more efficient.

Lean manufacturing seeks to eliminate wasteful practices, such as defects, waiting, unnecessary movement and excess inventory, in order to save money while increasing customer value.

Implementing lean manufacturing can be a difficult task for existing employees. Therefore, management should evaluate staff skills and determine who remains an integral part of the company before initiating any major changes. This reduces the risk of losing key personnel at critical moments while increasing success rates.

2. Ford

Students of lean manufacturing often draw parallels to Henry Ford and his revolutionary production process. Henry focused on eliminating waste while empowering his workforce; as well as improving customer service and decreasing inventory.

Later on, Toyota took lean manufacturing principles a step further by taking them to new levels. Taiichi Ohno is said to have began his efforts by working on stamping operations that required frequent die changes for small batches of parts production.

He created a tool that allowed workers to change dies themselves, dramatically cutting costs while also enabling the company to deliver parts as they are needed instead of pre-storing parts for use later. Furthermore, his innovation improved assembly efficiency, reduced downtime, and decreased overall operating costs; according to Roos et al.'s reporting of Nike's use of lean manufacturing to cut production time while increasing quality.

3. Honda

Lean production not only reduces waste and increases quality, but it is also environmentally sustainable. Lean principles help companies navigate an ever-evolving business landscape by decreasing energy use, reusing materials in production processes, and decreasing raw material use for manufacturing. Lean principles also help businesses adapt to changes such as increased competition from companies utilizing digital strategies or big data technologies, which provide more accurate portrayals of company strengths and weaknesses.

Honda employs lean production to optimize its manufacturing processes as efficiently as possible. For instance, its Marysville Ohio plant's designers coordinate die production with body design so as to minimize time between unveiling a new model and starting assembly line production.

4. Toyota

Toyota employs lean manufacturing as an organizing method that streamlines logistical aspects of a company, reduces waste and enhances overall profitability of businesses that opt to use this system.

Toyota employs innovative techniques such as kaizen workshops, where frontline workers solve knotty problems; 5S workplace organization system; kanban, which optimizes efficiency by decreasing inventory levels; and andon cord, which enables any worker to halt production lines if necessary. Through these measures, Toyota is able to reduce costs, shorten lead times and meet customer needs effectively.

Companies should carefully plan when introducing lean manufacturing. Otherwise, employees could become overwhelmed with their new responsibilities. If efficiency improvements make certain tasks obsolete, alternatives must be provided so as not to alter employee morale.

5. GE

Planned implementation of lean practices is crucial. Doing it without first doing thorough research can be costly and can quickly create more waste than needed.

GE engineers use lean principles to deliver their products more quickly; now taking only 10 days instead of 14 weeks just five years ago to bring computer chips to market.

Angie Norman of GE Healthcare is adept at breaking complex problems down into manageable steps. When the pandemic hit and they needed monitors with all their accessories set up quickly to serve patients during its course, Angie led a team who used lean methodology to meet demand as quickly as possible.