A procedure for the introduction of leanness into a company

Changing a traditional company into a lean one is a very complex and time-consuming process that needs to be addressed in an appropriate way, otherwise the project of introduction of leanness into a company may fail on the one hand and even have a negative impact on business operations of the company on the other. When introducing a change, a step-by-step procedure leading to a progress may be of great help. The paper outlines a general procedure of leanness, an important part of which is a lean agent. A portfolio analysis is also used as a measure of leanness or as an indicator of the desired direction. The applied working methods were mainly active workshops and interviews with employees. The procedure has been tested on an example of a Slovene company; first, the existing situation is outlined, then the leanness steps taken according to the procedure and the final result after the first transition of the procedure.