Industry Week has an interesting Viewpoint piece by Dave Gleditsch, CTO of Pelion Systems. The title is: Manufacturers Must Lean Forward, Not Backward.  Here's the opening.

"I was disappointed to see comments from the U.S. Department of Commerce official Al Frink at the August 8 Management Briefing Seminars held in Traverse City, Mich., suggesting that the American automotive industry may be too focused on cutting costs through Lean and Six Sigma initiatives and not giving enough attention to innovation as a vehicle for remaining competitive on the global landscape."

I couldn't find a transcript of Mr. Frink's remarks in Traverse City, but he's on record in testimony before Congress and in an interview last year with Manufacturing Today as saying that he sees innovation as something separate from lean manufacturing.  Maybe Mr. Frink just doesn't know what lean manufacturing is all about.

Lean manufacturing, as we know it today, is the Toyota Production System (TPS) in many variations and guises. TPS, in turn, is an engineer's version of principles that luminaries such as Ben Franklin and Henry Ford used to advocate. 

The best book I know of on lean manufacturing is Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation by James Womack and Daniel Jones. They offer five core concepts that you'll find in most lean systems.

Define value from the customer's perspective.
Identify the value stream and make it as efficient as possible.
Make value flow at the pull of the customer.
Involve workers in improving the process of value delivery.
Keep getting better.

Whatever business you're in, lean concepts can make you more productive and profitable.  Here are some web resources to get you started.

Lean Terminology
From Resources for World Class Manufacturing: Tools for Going Lean
From tpslean: Lean Resources
From iSixSigma: Lean Resources
From Advanced Manufacturing: A Collection of Articles

Wally Bock helps leaders at every level improve the performance and morale of the group they're responsible for. His latest book, Performance Talk: The One-on-One Part of Leadership, makes learning key leadership principles almost effortless because it teaches through a story, the way human beings have always learned complex lessons best.

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