Almost every organization that watched its pennies while they were growing now has trouble in watching its millions. Part of the issue is that there is no such thing as a Lean company. What does this mean? There is no magical place called Lean where you can arrive. There is only a Lean company here and now. More properly, companies move toward or away from Lean operations every day.

There is no permanence, just process and direction. Any company that considers itself lean (just like any company that thinks it is world class), is engaged in self deception. In a moment the leaders in the industry will fall and the followers will lead (or people who just entered the industry and didn't exist a few years ago will lead everyone). Complacency is the enemy of a truly Lean enterprise. Simple changes in technology tomorrow can open avenues not contemplated by any expert today.

There are hundreds of examples of Fat maintenance. For example, organizations can have too much PM. We remember the words of John Wanamaker (a Philadelphia, PA department store founder in the early 20th century) when he said that he knew that half his advertising was wasted. He said his problem was that he didn't know which half.

Half of a good PM effort is wasted. Nine tenths of a bad effort is wasted. One thing to consider is, what if you have a machine with a low consequence of failure? Let's also...