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Lean refers to the elimination of waste and nonvalue-added activities from a Customer point of view. ISO 9001:2000 is the widely used International standard that enables many companies to compete in new markets while improving their customer satisfaction and the way they do business.

ISO9001:2000 addressed criticisms of the earlier version by emphasizing Customer Satisfaction, Management Responsibility and Continual Improvement. Today, ISO is far less prescriptive allowing a company to manage its business its own way, provided that the basic requirements are met. This new perspective provides flexibility on what needs to be documented, so Lean documentation can be established.

Lean and ISO can provide many synergies including:

· Lean and ISO require a Customer focus.

· Lean metrics provide a means to measure Customer Satisfaction as part of the ISO Management System.

· Lean eliminates waste from processes as procedures are developed or reviewed.

· Value Stream Maps identify and eliminate waste from major processes.

· Kaizen events improve the flow of production and workplace organization.

· Lean Principles can be the focal point of the Continual Improvement process.

· Paperwork is nonvalue added so thinking Lean prevents you from creating more paperwork than it is absolutely necessary to run, control and improve the business.

· Standard work, a Lean Concept, can provide the framework for developing standard work instructions.

· Lean Visual controls demonstrate the control of procedures and work instructions. Photographs of the various step of a process can be used to describe a process instead of wordy work instructions.

We should conclude that merging Lean and ISO9001:2000 yields a very powerful Quality System.