Lean manufacturing was, for a long time, equated with JIT and thus it is difficult to make a clear distinction between lean and JIT. Similarly to its origin JIT lean aims to meet demand instantaneously, with perfect quality and no waste. Several authors have provided different interpretations of lean. Starting with Womack [9] lean manufacturing is defined as an integrated
set of socio-technical practices aimed at eliminating waste along the whole value chain within and across companies. On the other hand, lean can also be seen from the practical perspective as a set of management practices, tools, or techniques for effective lean management [10] and [11].