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1 Introduction
The term "Lean" in regards to a production system, was used by [9] Krafcik (1988) from the International Motor Vehicle Program operated out of the Center for Technology, Policy, and Industrial Development at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Krafcik used the term as a means of describing the Toyota Production System (TPS). [15] Womack and Jones (1991) were one of the first associated with the term "Lean" in the book The Machine that Changed the World . Lean thinking is an applied philosophy that many manufacturing, service, and government organizations have adopted to acquire the flexibility needed to meet new competitive challenges of eliminating waste, enhancing production, and promoting innovation. The concept of lean thinking allows these organizations to do more with less human effort, less time, less space, less equipment, etc. This concept presents a comprehensive view of eliminating/reducing waste by utilizing a detailed action plans. For improvement based on five steps: specify value from the perspective of the end-customer; identify the value stream for each product and every action required for design, order, and provision; make those actions that actually create value occur in a continuous flow; make products flow only at the pull of the customer; and continually reevaluate every value stream to strive for excellence. In determining elements that are critical to businesses achieving lean thinking status, the first step was to research the history of lean and the TPS. This was performed through reading and reviewing articles and text ([15] Womack and Jones, 1991; [1] Askin and Goldberg, 2002).
2 Lean assessment
The information-gathering phase was necessary for the development of the lean assessment system. It was determined that the most effective method to extract information from the lean thinking business society was a survey. The survey was realized from research of lean thinking publications, library research, lean manufacturing case studies, lean professionals, trade associations, trade literature, phone interviews, the University of Hartford Hamilton Standard report, and the internet. The survey consists of a questionnaire and a table. For the questionnaire, 100 questions were developed from the research to gather information to assist in the model's development. The 100 questions were separated into eight categories that paralleled Lean Manufacturing management strategies. The questionnaire categories are:
company overview;
quality...