The four principles of lean management:

Pull — this relates to avoiding overproduction and stockpiling. By enabling customer demand to dictate the rate at which products are delivered, a business is more likely to minimise waste as it will only be producing the outputs that will be sold.In this way, customers ‘pull’ value through the production process, leading to efficiency and effectiveness. One piece flow — this largely relates to eliminating waiting time or idle time. One piece flow involves a piece of production moving through the operations process one at a time.By producing in a smooth, uninterrupted manner, idle time is minimised. This improves efficiency, as costs are reduced and waste minimised. Quality is improved, enabling the business to be more effective. Takt — this refers to the rate of production needed to meet customer demand. Takt time is the average time that passes between production starting on one unit of a product and the start of production of the next unit, in order to meet demand. Takt helps the business to establish a consistent workflow following a smooth pattern that is flexible and easy to regulate as demand rises or falls. Zero defects — this is all about the business striving for perfection. and by not accepting or passing on defects, issues will be resolved quickly and levels of waste will be reduced. This improves efficiency, as resources are utilised with minimum waste, and avoids quality issues, leading to increasing profitability.