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The idea has been around for more than 60 years, a management sea change that helped bring a shattered nation back to life. Yet at some companies, it still strikes fear in the hearts of workers and management alike when they are faced with the mere thought of implementing its concepts.

Making "lean manufacturing" a reality in the American workplace is often a grueling process, embraced by some, derided by others. In the global marketplace, it may soon become the only management system that can compete effectively on a large scale.

The lean-manufacturing management philosophy derives most of its original ideas from the Toyota experience. It became famous for its focus on reducing waste in order to improve overall customer value. The fact that Toyota is poised to become the world's largest automaker (industry analysts say they'll eclipse General Motors this year) has focused attention upon how it has achieved such remarkable growth. That, in turn, has made "lean" a hot topic in management science at the dawn of the 21st century.

As companies around the world become more familiar with the process, management experts all over this country are grappling with its techniques and attempting to convince their clients of its worth. When a company moves toward the lean concept, it means workers themselves will have to adjust to a new way of thinking about what they do for a living.

There is much at stake now, just as there was when Taiichi Ono came up with the idea in the post World War II ruins of Japan's industrial machine.

"Anytime I recommend changes, there is that lingering question: 'Is it going to lead to more job loss and outsourcing,'" says David Csokasy, president of the DJC Group, a management consulting firm based outside Dayton, Ohio, that specializing in the human side of lean manufacturing. "Right away you're starting off behind the eight-ball."

Like many management experts, Csokasy, a former academic who has worked with major firms around the country, insists that the key to successfully implementing the concept is to involve workers in the process from the beginning.

"When it fails, in most cases, you don't have an environment where workers are sitting at the table with you, helping to implement it," he says. "When they're not there, most believe it's a way to cut jobs."

The idea is echoed by Peter Kropf, president of Gembutso Consulting, a management training agency in Seattle.

"Lean doesn't fail because of a lack of worker ideas or a willingness to try new ideas," Kropf says. "If it fails, it fails because middle management doesn't support it the way they need to. We (managers) in the West are just not used to people lining up at our door, telling us how to improve the product."