The transition to a lean environment does not occur overnight. A continuous improvement mentality is necessary to reach your company's goals. The term "continuous improvement" means incremental improvement of products, processes, or services over time, with the goal of reducing waste to improve workplace functionality, customer service, or product performance (Suzaki, 1987). Continuous improvement principles, as practiced by the most devoted manufacturers, result in astonishing improvements in performance that competitors find nearly impossible to achieve. Lean production, applied correctly, results in the ability of an organization to learn. As in any organization, mistakes will always be made. However, mistakes are not usually repeated because this is a form of waste that the lean production philosophy and its methods seek to eliminate.