最近看到GE的一个职位要求：对：

Working knowledge of LEAN processing不是很了解：

---

Desired Characteristics

1. Masters Degree in Computer Science, Engineering or related computer field2. Experience in software platform, advanced applications, user-interface design and/or systems engineering3. Experience in platform. and application development4. Linux Kernel experience5. Real Time programming experience6. Working knowledge of LEAN processing

---

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_manufacturing 是wikipedia的解释，摘录如下：

often simply, "Lean," is a production practice that considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. Working from the perspective of the customer who consumes a product or service, "value" is defined as any action or process that a customer would be willing to pay for.

Essentially, lean is centered on preserving value with less work. Lean manufacturing is a management philosophy derived mostly from the Toyota Production System (TPS) (hence the term Toyotism is also prevalent) and identified as "Lean" only in the 1990s.^[1][2] TPS is renowned for its focus on reduction of the original Toyota seven wastes to improve overall customer value, but there are varying perspectives on how this is best achieved. The steady growth of Toyota, from a small company to the world's largest automaker,^[3] has focused attention on how it has achieved this.

Lean manufacturing is a variation on the theme of efficiency based on optimizing flow; it is a present-day instance of the recurring theme in human history toward increasing efficiency, decreasing waste, and using empirical methods to decide what matters, rather than uncritically accepting pre-existing ideas. As such, it is a chapter in the larger narrative that also includes such ideas as the folk wisdom of thrift, time and motion study, Taylorism, the Efficiency Movement, and Fordism. Lean manufacturing is often seen as a more refined version of earlier efficiency efforts, building upon the work of earlier leaders such as Taylor or Ford, and learning from their mistakes.

---

简单的来说，lean就是所谓的高效生产模式。