Lean Management is a business concept intended to improve processes and increase productivity. It can be defined as

“the dynamic process of continuous improvement by empowered employees, in a culture of mutual trust and respect, focused on eliminating waste and maximizing value for our customers”

“Lean” is a process of continuous improvement. Although it is often thought of in the context of manufacturing, the underlying concepts of Lean Management are applicable to farms of any size. The primary goal of lean management is to maintain the quality of production that your customers demand while reducing waste and unnecessary costs. The Cornell Pro-Dairy program has explored Lean Management with Dairy farms in New York, but these concepts are also relevant to fruit and vegetable production.

	Question	Reason	Solutions/Improvements
Defects	How much of what you produce can’t be sold for a good price because of quality defects?	What is the root cause of the defects? Is there an economic solution to address the defects?	Would a new variety, a different crop, better worker training or better tools improve the situation?
Overproduction	How much of what your produce does not get sold, or is sold for unsustainably low prices due to lack of market demand?	Is overproduction a consistent problem? If yes, why do you have overproduction?	Reduce production so that it is better aligned with your market. See if there are additional markets.
Inventory	How does your inventory of product or tools contribute to, or erode your profitability?	For items in inventory that are not earmarked for specific uses in the next 12 months, why do you maintain them in inventory?	If a part is in inventory because it is critical and hard to get, keeping it in inventory makes sense, but the goal should be to reduce excess inventory where possible.
Waiting	Are people or equipment idel for long periods during the day?	Does access to equipment or resources hold up work?	If bottlenecks cannot be economically addressed can the workflow be changed?

Lean Management is a process of continuous improvement, not a one-time fix. To start implementing it on your farm, select a production activity to observe and talk to your staff. Start with “low hanging fruit”. For example, are there ways to make the workflow more efficient just by making tools and resources more accessible to the job? Can you reduce the number of steps it takes to complete a task? This Observation Checklistresource from Cornell Pro-Dairy is completely applicable to any farm.

If you are a fruit or vegetable farm that is interested in more information or technical assistance in the area of Lean Management let me know and I can either point you towards assistance or, if there is enough interest, develop a larger technical assistance program in Lean Management.