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[David Dodd]

For the past several weeks, the economic news has been almost universally bad. Economic growth has declined significantly and appears to be poised to slow even more. Some prognosticators are saying that our economy is already in recession, and other say it soon will be. The financial crisis on Wall Street has caused stock prices to plunge, and it has threatened to shut down credit markets. The recent passage of the Federal bailout legislation offers some hope, but it seems clear that business conditions will be tough for at least the next several months.

Economic conditions aren't any better in the printing industry than in the overall economy. If any of you attended Dr. Joe Webb's latest economic webinar at WhatTheyThink, you'll already know that inflation-adjusted printing sales have been declining for the past several years and that the downward trend is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Industry profits are also near a multi-year low, and there's little reason the expect any significant improvement anytime soon.

So, what has all this got to do with lean? Most of the principles and techniques that we now call lean were developed by Toyota Motor Corporation under extremely difficult economic and business conditions, when the company's long-term survival was far from certain. In essence, Toyota became "lean" because it had no real choice. The company had to create new ways of working that would dramatically reduce waste and improve productivity in order to survive.

It is not that farfetched to say that many printing companies are in the same position today that Toyota was in sixty years ago. The printing industry has been contracting for several years, as print faces increasing competition from other methods of communication. The current economic mess will only magnify the problems confronting printing companies, especially if it persists for any significant period of time.

Becoming lean can help printing companies weather difficult times. Lean is not a quick-fix, nor will it "recession-proof" a business, but it can help a company better withstand whatever the economy brings. It will be interesting to see if more printing companies turn to lean to deal with our economic challenges.