The core of lean production is to pursue the elimination of all "waste" including inventory. In order to achieve this goal, lean production mode includes a series of specific tools and methods and becomes a unique and effective production management system.

Lean production mode originated from Toyota production mode. In 1950s, Toyota Motor Corporation wanted to develop the automobile industry, and went to the United States several times to learn from Ford, General Motors and other automobile companies. At that time, American automobile companies adopted the way of "mass production". Japan, which has just experienced the Second World War, has a low purchasing power and lacks a huge consumer market like the United States, and the sales of each car will not be too large. After visiting and studying, Toyota came to the conclusion that "the mass production mode is not suitable for Japan". Toyota decided to go its own way, adopted "multi-variety, small batch production mode" and achieved success, creating the famous "Toyota production mode".

The world oil crisis occurred in 1973. At that time, major American auto companies could not produce new cars with low energy consumption, and Japanese auto companies such as Toyota stole the show. Because it can provide diversified products at low cost, Toyota production mode shows many advantages in automobile manufacturing. This advantage affects the market share. By 1980, the output of Japanese enterprises led by Toyota surpassed that of the United States and became the largest automobile producer in the world. The mass production mode of the United States cannot support it to continue to be in the leading position.

Many people of insight in the United States have understood that "Toyota has indeed completed a revolution in manufacturing." So Guan people began to study the successful experience of the Japanese in depth. Fifty-three experts and scholars organized by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) visited nearly 90 automobile assembly plants in 1984 to 1989 for five years. The differences between mass production mode and Toyota production mode are compared and analyzed, and many basic characteristics of Toyota production mode are extracted. These basic characteristics are not only applicable to the field of automobile manufacturing, but also to many other fields. 1990, they named the production mode derived from Toyota production mode as lean production mode. Since then, lean production mode has surpassed Toyota and automobile manufacturing and become a widely used production mode in many industries.

Lean production mode is an enterprise management mode with the brand of industrial engineering theory, which is summarized and developed on the basis of Toyota production mode. It is an organic combination of correct management concept and effective management method.