Significant effort and dollars are invested in lean initiatives each year in manufacturing plants across the United States. These investments can yield significant production and profitability gains if done properly.

Avnet Inc. just celebrated its 10th anniversary as a Lean company. But the company's search for waste and inefficiency is far from over.

Lean is one of the biggest management ideas of the past 50 years. No less than Ford's original assembly line, it has transformed how leading companies think about operations - starting in assembly plants and other factory settings and moving more recently into services ranging from retailing and health care to financial services, IT, and even the public sector. Yet despite lean's trajectory, broad influence, and level of general familiarity among senior executives, it would be a mistake to think that it has reached its full potential.

Total Quality Management. Quality circles. Quality with a capital "Q." It all seems so...20th Century.

Growth in sales was making it tougher for the popular maker of premium ice cream to keep tabs on its production line. New software to ensure manufacturing quality was needed.

A conversation with Jay Hollenbeck, director of business solutions with Flextronics.