Lean philosophy focuses on many small improvements rather than an occasional big improvement. The approach of a lot of companies is to attempt large scale improvements for going all the small improvements along the way. Many times the big improvement was too late to realize the full benefits anticipated or it was no longer what was needed by the customer. The small improvements come from eliminating non-value-added activities. A company that embraced the lean manufacturing philosophy would be an organization striving for the ideal where everyone adds value to the product.