To this day, lean management has yet to enter the mainstream in business. It remains solidly on the fringe, despite great efforts by many people over many decades.

You almost never hear of lean management in the business press unless the article is written by an insider such as James P. Womack or John Toussaint. Kaizen is rarely mentioned in The Wall Street Journal or Financial Times. You hear about just-in-time only when disaster strikes, when an earthquake in Japan or flood in Thailand disrupts production that has been carefully synchronized with demand. Improved relationships between employer and employee, or between buyer and seller, are not newsworthy.

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