SUPPLIERS LAG IN RACE TO GET LEAN, EXPERT SAYS.

Automakers around the world boast that their plants are more efficient than ever.

The buzzword that emerged a decade ago - ``lean manufacturing'' - still buzzes today in auto factories from Alabama to Austria.

But one of the world's foremost commentators on lean practices -the man whose research project coined the term - has a sobering word of caution: Suppliers still lag.

``About half of them get it, and the other half are trying to get it,'' James Womack said of suppliers today.

Womack thinks the industry is still rife with waste