The concept of “lean manufacturing” was first developed by the Japanese automotive industry in the 1950s. Lean manufacturing succeeded the "mass production" approach introduced by Henry Ford in the early 1920s.
James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones and Daniel Ross, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, carried out a study towards the end of the 1980s on the future of the automotive industry. In their publication, The Machine that Changed the World, they named the concept "lean production". Lean production was developed primarily to eliminate waste in every area of production. Any activity that does not add value to a product is considered wasteful. Zero value-added activities can take up 95% of a product’s manufacturing cycle. Some examples of these activities include: