Lean manufacturing has become a worldwide trend. Approximately 60% of discrete-parts manufacturers in the United States have adopted lean initiatives, says Ralph Rio, research director at ARC Advisory Group, and the concept is at least as popular in Europe and Asia.

"If you're not doing it," says Rio, "you'd better get it in gear."

But going lean isn't easy. "Only 30% of lean programs are successful in terms of the bottom line," Rio told attendees of the ARC Strategy Forum held recently in Boston. "Another 30% are muddling along, close to breaking even" he says, "and the other 40% are underwater and failing."

A successful lean program requires a significant culture change, according to Steve Habrich, materials manager at Husqvarna Turf Care and a speaker at the forum. "Make sure you bring everybody into the fold," Habrich says, explaining that top-level managers must fully support a lean initiative and employees and suppliers must understand the value of the program.

Another hallmark of a successful lean program, says Rio, is an electronic kanbans program. Habrich agrees, calling electronic kanban signals "the only way to go."

Rio also recommends augmenting a lean initiative with a Six Sigma program. Forum speaker Shawn Usher says this is the way his company, Solectron, has approached continuous improvement. Selectron used lean techniques to make initial improvements, he says, and then turned to Six Sigma projects to do more statistical measurement and analysis.