John,
"Lean manufacturing" or "lean" refers to a group of principles, tools, and practices that are, in fact, related. The companies that have made the greatest progress in their lean transformation do view these principles, tools, and practices as components of a "system." For example, before lean was called lean, Toyota called it the "Toyota Production System." However, it is not true that a company must implement and use ALL of the classic lean tools and practices in order to gain benefits from lean. In fact, not all of the classic lean tools and practices are particularly useful in a printing company. But many are. For example, most printing companies will gain significant benefits from implementing a 5S program or a Total Productive Maintenance program. Most printing companies would also benefit from doing some value stream mapping and from using the "5 Whys" technique for problem solving. I would also stress that it is not necessary to implement all appropriate lean tools at the same time. I know this sounds like a cliche, but becoming lean is not a single event, it is a process. So you can benefit from using only a few lean tools, but, of course, the more lean you become, the greater the benefits.