\Gsection{Introduction}
\label{sec:LEANintroduction}

LEAN manufacturing is a manufacturing approach based on Toyota's successes,
as described by researchers who observed and analyzed Toyota.
LEAN product development is building on LEAN manufacturing,
where the ideas from the repetitive production environment are
transformed for use in the creative product development environment.
Likewise LEAN product development is based on observing Toyota product development.

LEAN at slogan level is sold as ``avoid waste''.
For the purpose of this chapter we characterize LEAN by the following elements,
loosely based on~\cite{www:ApplyingLeanPrinciplesProductDevelopment}:
\begin{description}
\item[A holistic, systems approach to product development] including people, processes,
and technology.
\item[Multi-disciplinary] from the early start, with a drive to be fact based.
\item[Customer understanding] as the the starting point.
\item[Continuous improvement and learning] as cultural value.
\item[Small distance] between engineers and real systems, including
manufacturing, sales and service and the system of interest.
\end{description}


