Lean manufacturing aims to eliminate waste in production processes through continuous improvement efforts. It focuses on minimizing inventory levels and non-value adding activities to reduce costs and lead times. Toyota pioneered this approach after World War 2 to rebuild efficiently without large economies of scale. Implementing lean principles like just-in-time production and cellular manufacturing allowed Toyota to dramatically reduce production cycle times and outcompete major automakers. A chemical company also successfully applied lean tools to halve inventory levels and cut order fulfillment times from 20 to 5 minutes. Lean techniques organize work areas, maintain equipment, and pull work through production cells to optimize flow.