From Lean Thinking to Lean & Digital World Class: Michele Bonfiglioli on Automazione News

In an industrial landscape marked by advanced digitalization, artificial intelligence, and new geopolitical complexities, Lean Thinking cannot remain confined to the factory floor. It must evolve into an integrated model that encompasses supply chains, product development, corporate organization, and people: this is the Lean & Digital World Class.

Michele Bonfiglioli, CEO of Bonfiglioli Consulting, discusses this evolution in an interview published in Automazione News (No. 4, April 2026), 25 years after the publication of “Lean Thinking – The Italian Way” by founder Romano Bonfiglioli.

Key takeaways from the interview:

• About one in three companies in Italy adopts Lean Thinking in an organic way, with a concentration in medium and large enterprises
• Where the method is applied consistently, the results are measurable: a 20–30% increase in productivity, a 30–40% reduction in inventory, on-time delivery rates exceeding 90%, and a 30–50% reduction in time to market
• Only 5–7% of companies proactively manage change through high levels of digitalization in Operations and the Supply Chain
• Implementing digital technologies without rethinking processes through a Lean lens risks generating “digital waste”: automation of unnecessary activities, information redundancy, and lack of system integration
• The Lean & Digital World Class model proposes an integrated architecture that blends lean methodology and digital tools, following the operational cycle Sense → Store → Analyse → Display

Lean Thinking remains valid in its fundamental principles, but it must be interpreted in a new way within a much more complex global landscape. Its most advanced version is Lean & Digital World Class — Michele Bonfiglioli

The data cited in the article comes from the research study “What’s Next in Operations? Benchmarking Study," conducted by Bonfiglioli Consulting on a sample of over 100 companies and managers across 22 industrial sectors.

📄 The full article is available in the print edition of Automazione News, No. 4 – April 2026.