LEAN logistics: history and principles of LEAN In the mid-1950s Taiichi Ohno began to develop the methodology and principles of the Lean Manufacturing approach in the form of the Toyota Production System ( TPS) and to implement it in Toyota in the automotive production chain, which at that time was extremely unprogressive and of inferior quality. The essential principle of the LEAN Manufacturing approach is the implementation of workflow in which all work sequences in all business functions are standardized and continuously optimized – holistically integrated without department, division or country boundaries. The four basic rules of LEAN1. All work must be highly standardized in terms of content, workflow and timing.2. All relationships with customers and suppliers (external and internal) must be direct and there must be a clear yes/no procedure.3. The path to each product and service must be simple and direct.4. All improvements must be carried out in accordance with standardized methodology and under the supervision of the "teacher" (Sensei) at the lowest possible organizational level. The first objective of Lean is to reduce total logistics costs by increasing the speed and flow of material and information. Waste and variation must be eliminated from the supply chain. So the second goal is to visualize where the waste is and allocate resources where the greatest opportunities for improvement are, so that you can get the most out of it. The third and also very important objective is to improve delivery performance to the customer while reducing total logistics costs. To achieve this it is very important to apply lean tools and systemic improvements where processes are most inefficient. The main problem is that efficiency is normally not measured or not measured correctly. Furthermore, other logistics processes are not analyzed and controlled such as reverse logistics for returnable packaging, etc. The purchase is aimed at obtaining the cheapest company per unit basis and does not take into account the efficiency of the operation. Logistics companies operate at low efficiency (cube and weight). Normally, systems are very disintegrated. Excel is used to execute and scale kanbans, and standard processes are not implemented to maintain these pull systems. The MRP is still driving the supply part and the forecast information for suppliers varies greatly due to misinformation and bullwhip effects ("Garbage in garbage out2). The weakest links need to be identified and improved to strengthen the whole supply chain.