You are right there are far to many in the Lean world that have gotten carried away and forgotten that the Toyota Production System is based on common sense, and people trying to replicate and adapt it to their operations need to use common sense to know how and when and to what extent to apply and of the features, in fact if they use common sense they may realize that they need to use other ideas beyond just those Toyota uses.

I never really like the name Lean for this management system, after all Toyota doesn’t look to get rid of all the fat some of it helps protect the organization during crisis situations, it is very much about being a balanced organization and using the common sense and skills and abilities of everyone in the organization to generate the best possible outcome for everyone. It is much more a Common Sense Management System, the name Lean has been used for as much abuse, as it has for true improvement, which is a shame.