What year was Lean Manufacturing introduced?

The introduction of Lean Manufacturing is historically attributed to the Toyota Production System, which was developed in the post-World War II era and significantly evolved throughout the 1950s and 1960s. While many of its principles became widely recognized and adopted in manufacturing practices during the 1980s, it wasn't until the early 1990s that the term "Lean Manufacturing" itself became popularized, particularly through publications like "Lean Thinking" by James Womack and Daniel Jones in 1996.

The focus of Lean Manufacturing is on maximizing value by minimizing waste, which entails optimizing processes and enhancing efficiency. This methodology has roots that delve back further than the options provided, yet the formal recognition of Lean processes began taking shape around the mid-1990s.

Although the date 2000 seems like a plausible option because the practices were gaining traction around that time, it does not accurately reflect the initial introduction of Lean principles to the broader manufacturing community. Therefore, acknowledging the historical context helps clarify the timeline of Lean Manufacturing's development and its formal association with the term in the mid-1990s.