Blog by Ketan Varia
The IET Manufacturing Technical Network (MTN) hosted a global webinar on The Future of Lean on the 16 September 2025, attracting 160 attendees from around the world. You can also view the on demand event.
Lean thinking began as a simple but powerful mindset: create value, reduce waste, make things flow, and avoid overstressing processes. Over the decades, it has evolved, flourished, and quietly embedded itself in surprising places. Today, Lean stands at a crossroads; facing the challenges of digital transformation, sustainability, and global economic shifts.
Lean and Sustainability: A Green Imperative
Professor Konstantinos (Kostas) Salonitis of Cranfield University’s Sustainable Manufacturing Systems Centre opened the MTN webinar with a compelling vision: Lean must now drive sustainability. He distinguished between Lean waste (non–value-adding activity) and green waste (energy, water, emissions, pollution), noting that the mapping between the two is not one-to-one.
To address this, traditional Lean tools must be adapted. Environmental Value Stream Mapping (EVSM), Sankey diagrams, 5S, Kaizen, and visual environmental KPIs are being reimagined to meet net-zero and “absolute zero” targets. Salonitis demonstrated, through UK foundry work, that Lean-led operational changes can reduce waste and energy by about 25%; without capital investment.
This fusion of “green and lean” thinking is essential. True Lean is not just about cutting visible waste; it’s about balancing work, avoiding overload, and eliminating environmental harm. Only when these elements align can real flow and sustainable value emerge.
Lean in the Digital Age
In today’s world of automation, AI, and interconnected supply chains, Lean is no longer confined to the factory floor. The concept of gemba; the place where value is created, has expanded. It now includes dashboards, embedded technologies, and predictive analytics. Companies like Siemens use AI to auto-adjust production processes in real time, delivering quality at scale with minimal human intervention.
Ken Jones, a Shingo-recognised enterprise excellence leader, showcased in his presentation a case study from Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) that illustrated how a standardised, web-based policy deployment system replaced paper and Excel tools, saving over 8,000 hours monthly across 334 group leaders. This digital shift not only improved throughput and quality but also delivered a £1.7 million benefit.
We know that Lean’s digital evolution now also includes AI-assisted anomaly detection in vision inspection and direct machine-to-KPI integration, eliminating the need for human intermediaries. These innovations demonstrate that Lean is not being replaced by digital tools; rather, it is being strengthened by them.
Global Perspectives and Cultural Embedding
Lean’s impact varies by geography. In the UK, manufacturing now accounts for less than 9% of GDP, down from about 25% in the 1970s (ONS, 2024). Meanwhile, India’s manufacturing sector is projected to double to $1 trillion by 2030 (McKinsey, 2023), and countries like China, Vietnam, and Japan continue to lead through integrated systems and sustained investment.
Interestingly, companies that do Lean best, like Toyota, rarely talk about it. They simply live it. Lean becomes a habit, embedded in culture rather than treated as a programme. This cultural embedding is what makes Lean resilient, even in complex and uncertain environments.
Practical Takeaways
If you're thinking about Lean, don’t wait for a big project. Start anywhere; at home, in your team, in your community, by asking:
- What do people really value here?
- What is getting in the way?
- Where is mental energy lost, or work wasted?
- How can we improve flow?
- What small bits of tech or investment could remove waste?
Lean is still relevant. It just looks different now. Once you start thinking Lean, you’ll start seeing opportunities everywhere.
Event Reflections and Feedback
During the webinar, we hosted a series of breakout sessions that helped us to bridge the networking gap allowing delegates from across the globe to make new connections and discuss: ‘Is Lean still relevant in today’s digital world?’ and ‘Where do you think lean can bring about new benefits where you work’ and were seen as valuable for networking and idea exchange.
From the discussions and feedback we gleaned:
- Lean helps reduce duplication and paperwork, especially with digital tools.
- Digitisation enhances Lean through real-time fault detection and data-driven improvements.
- Lean is crucial where apps or systems are inefficient or hard to use.
- Fit-for-purpose and cost-effective solutions make Lean even more valuable.
- Lean is evolving; its principles remain, but the methods may change.
- Digital can sometimes hinder Lean due to perceived complexity or cost, but the goal should be learning and improvement, not just automation.
- In electricity generation, Lean improves plant maintenance, reducing downtime and boosting reliability.
- The growing importance of Design for Sustainability; repairability, remanufacture, modularity. These principles are becoming central to Lean thinking, especially in construction and process industries.
- In manufacturing, Lean drives continuous improvement, though automation must be balanced with human decision-making.
- Competing priorities can challenge Lean implementation, but its value persists.
- Lean is especially relevant for SMEs adopting Industry 4.0 and connecting machines and factories.
Our attendees rated the event highly relevant and informative and praised the quality of content and delivery, In particular they liked the balance between academic and industry perspectives, and the moderated Q&A. The full link to the webinar is here.
What is your take on Lean Manufacturing and new benefits and ways of working?