Eaton Cutler-Hammer began lean training at the University of Tennessee in early 2000. This training will eventually impact all of the company's product lines. Companywide lean training concludes late next year. There are 10 people per team (product line) and each will undergo 40 hours of training.

Eaton Cutler-Hammer identifies its lean concepts as 'lean enterprise,' rather than lean manufacturing. Lean enterprise impacts other areas of the selling cycle above and beyond manufacturing, including the front end (engineering) and the sales organization. As an example of how the lean principles have impacted Eaton Cutler-Hammer, the lead time for Motor Control Centers has been sliced from eight weeks to as short as one day. Lead times on Medium Voltage Switchgear have gone from 14-16 weeks to four weeks.

Eaton Cutler-Hammer is constantly expanding its lean packages. In addition, for specific alliance customers the company is working on developing customized lean solutions, rather than the pre-engineered packages that constitute traditional lean offerings.

The company is seeing lean manufacturing principles be embraced by the power generation market, while the data centers that were so popular during the Internet boom have fallen by the wayside.