Lean Retail. Can lean production help retailers to address global challenges?

Saturated markets, a decreasing valuation of fashion by a part of consumers paired with missing impulses by some companies has brought along a crisis in retail, especially in Europe. Changing consumer demand, customer sophistication, customer empowerment via the internet and rapid industry change are just a few challenges global retailers are facing today. The consequence is big pressure on prices and margins and a need for process excellence. As in the 1990s the American and European automotive industry struggled with similar challenges, a concept named lean production was imported from Japan. It helped some Western automotive companies, like Porsche, and big parts of industry to find their way back on the path of success. Is the route to success via lean production exclusive to industry? Or might retailers today benefit from lean production philosophy? In this book Simon Fauser approaches these questions by analysing lean production philosophy, extracting lean principles and applying these to retail and its challenges.