Lean as structured method to improve productivity has earned its undisputed place during the last 10 years. The combination of a people-oriented philosophy, combined with simple but effective methods, has led to considerable improvements in almost all industry sectors. However it becomes increasingly clear that introducing Lean requires knowledge and efforts that are outside the possibilities of small businesses. The paper reports on the preliminary results of a concerted research effort towards an effective method to introduce Lean in small production enterprises (SME‟s). Anticipated results are operational and practical findings for improving success rates of adoption. This should widen considerably the range of businesses that can benefit from this structured improvement process. It would also allow policymakers to better target support measures to small businesses