Lean practices and principles build on a half-century of successive initiatives aimed at transforming social and technical systems in organizations. While they are seen as central to the revitalization of the U.S. aerospace industry, there is great variation in the degree to which lean initiatives emphasize just technical/manufacturing systems versus additional social and enterprise dimensions....

The healthcare industry has seen a flurry of merger activity in 2009. But, consolidation in this industry is not new, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) has been closely scrutinizing healthcare transactions for years. These transactions, however, come at a juncture when the antitrust enforcement agencies are poised for more aggressive antitrust review and also when healthcare ...