{"id":37001,"date":"2024-05-14T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lean.org\/?p=37001"},"modified":"2024-05-14T09:29:47","modified_gmt":"2024-05-14T13:29:47","slug":"history-of-the-term-lean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lean.org\/the-lean-post\/articles\/history-of-the-term-lean\/","title":{"rendered":"The History of the Term &#8220;Lean&#8221;: a Conversation with Jim Womack and John Krafcik"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In this episode of the WLEI podcast, Jim Womack and John Krafcik share the origin story of the term &#8220;lean.&#8221; Jim led the MIT global benchmarking study of the automotive industry, which led to the seminal book\u00a0<em>The Machine That Changed the World<\/em>, and John was one of the principal researchers. Jim went on to co-author a similarly influential book,\u00a0<em>Lean Thinking,<\/em>\u00a0and founded the Lean Enterprise Institute. John Krafcik became an executive in the auto industry, serving as CEO of Hyundai America and Waymo. The discussion closes by turning from the past to the future with updates on Waymo&#8217;s autonomous driving technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This conversation took place at LEI&#8217;s Lean Summit in March 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Special note:<\/strong>&nbsp;Are you keen to explore how technology such as autonomy will reshape the future workplace? Join us at &#8220;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/events.lean.org\/event\/21a96ae3-4322-46ec-a73e-42214130af79\/summary?start_date=1721260800\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Future of People at Work Symposium<\/a>&#8221; July 18-19 in Detriot, MI, to&nbsp;learn about these challenges from business luminaries like Jim Womack and Jeff Liker and collaborate with peers to address them.&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/events.lean.org\/event\/21a96ae3-4322-46ec-a73e-42214130af79\/summary?start_date=1721260800\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Click here<\/a>&nbsp;to learn more and register.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-1 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-text-align-left wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/events.lean.org\/event\/21a96ae3-4322-46ec-a73e-42214130af79\/summary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Learn more and register<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<iframe title=\"The History of the Term &quot;Lean&quot;: a Conversation with Jim Womack and John Krafcik\" allowtransparency=\"true\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" style=\"border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);height:150px;\" scrolling=\"no\" data-name=\"pb-iframe-player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podbean.com\/player-v2\/?i=3vz7i-160f5c2-pb&#038;from=pb6admin&#038;share=1&#038;download=1&#038;rtl=0&#038;fonts=Arial&#038;skin=1&#038;font-color=&#038;logo_link=episode_page&#038;btn-skin=7\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jim Womack and John Krafcik look back at the history of the term &#8220;lean&#8221; and look ahead to the future of autonomous driving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"6639,11911,12276,6845,5202,4161","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[27],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The History of the Term Le | 2024 Lean Summit<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jim Womack and John Krafcik look back at the history of the term &quot;lean&quot; and look ahead to the 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