ABSTRACT
The first word in the book Lean Thinking (Womack and Jones, 1996) is muda – which is Japanese for waste. The authors of this book then go onto to talking about the acquisition of ‘muda glasses’ i.e. the ability to spot wasteful practice wherever you go. One of the most troubling parts of being a specialist in improvement thinking are those ‘muda glasses’ which, over time, resemble less like glasses and more like permanent muda laser eye surgery. Given this effect, in 2006, as somewhat of a pioneer of muda laser eye surgical techniques, whilst working within Cardiff University, Professor Peter Hines was very keen to engage in discussions with the then Vice Chancellor of Cardiff University, David Grant, to propose and commence the £1/2 million pound Lean University programme. Professor Peter Hines was the then Director of the Lean Enterprise Research Centre (LERC), a fairly autonomous unit within Cardiff Business School, created in 1994 by Peter, as well as Daniel Jones, one of the authors of The Machine that Changed the World and Lean Thinking.330
