Lean manufacturing articles are great places to find out the key talking points about the subject and garner a respect for what it can bring to your organization.  Below you will find a list of the key lean manufacturing benefits subdivided by the tools that they encompass.

One of the key things to remember when talking about lean manufacturing is that the improvements you make on a non-bottleneck area or piece of equipment are not worth anything.  Working specifically on the constraint is a hallmark of lean practices and any article on the Theory of Contraints had better highlight the key ways to ferret out the bottleneck, how to improve performance on that bottleneck (and thus improve output markedly), and who to approach things if your constraint is wont to move.  Understanding these concepts are paramount to much of the teaching and theory behind lean manufacturing practices.

Another key thing to grasp in the lean manufacturing world is the value stream map (VSM).  Implicit in the value stream map is a process map of the process you are targeting.  This will highlight all the work that is required to complete the task you are specifying.  A value stream map adds wait times, inventory levels, cycle times and a bunch of really useful information to a process map and will map it a bit clearer as to what your bottleneck is.  At the end you are able to specify the multiple, which is the inverse of the value add % of your process.  Seeing this number in print is often an eye opening experience.

5S is one of the great tools that you can use in the lean manufacturing world.  The beauty is its straightforward approach and readily apparent benefits.  Often times it seems like complete common sense, but that doesn't mean that it is obvious to the production floor or inventory locations that it should be the way things are run.  Here are the definitions from Wikipedia

Phase 1 - Seiri (整理) Sorting: Going through all the tools, materials, etc., in the plant and work area and keeping only essential items. Everything else is stored or discarded.

Phase 2 - Seiton (整頓) Straighten or Set in Order: Focuses on efficiency. When we translate this to "Straighten or Set in Order", it sounds like more sorting or sweeping, but the intent is to arrange the tools, equipment and parts in a manner that promotes work flow. For example, tools and equipment should be kept where they will be used (i.e. straighten the flow path), and the process should be set in an order that maximizes efficiency. For every thing there should be place and every thing should be in its place. (Demarcation and labeling of place.)

Phase 3 - Seisō (清掃) Sweeping or Shining or Cleanliness: Systematic Cleaning or the need to keep the workplace clean as well as neat. At the end of each shift, the work area is cleaned up and everything is restored to its place. This makes it easy to know what goes where and have confidence that everything is where it should be. The key point is that maintaining cleanliness should be part of the daily work - not an occasional activity initiated when things get too messy.

Phase 4 - Seiketsu (清潔) Standardizing: Standardized work practices or operating in a consistent and standardized fashion. Everyone knows exactly what his or her responsibilities are to keep above 3S's.

Phase 5 - Shitsuke (躾) Sustaining the discipline: Refers to maintaining and reviewing standards. Once the previous 4S's have been established, they become the new way to operate. Maintain the focus on this new way of operating, and do not allow a gradual decline back to the old ways of operating. However, when an issue arises such as a suggested improvement, a new way of working, a new tool or a new output requirement, then a review of the first 4S's is appropriate.

As can be seen the whole premise of 5S is to remove the stuff you don't need (literally get rid of stuff that isn't needed in the immediate area, happens more often that you would think), make sure the stuff you do need is easy to find and in the same place all the time(the stuff you use all the time easily grabbed and close to the work, the stuff you use not as often in a designated location and further away but still close), develop a standardized approach to the work through fixtures, jigging and the like, and then develop a process to ensure that the gains are realized and maintained. 

OEE is a tool that boils everything that happens to a process and assigns any reason for not meeting perfection in a output hit via one of three key areas:

Quality - be it quality at the given piece of equipment or rejects from downstream that steal away capacity at a given piece of equipment)

Performance - things that hinder output while the machine is ready to run parts.  Key things to this would be worker breaks and unavailability of materials

Availability - any reason that a machine is not able to be running.  These include preventative maintenance (scheduled downtime) and breakdowns (unscheduled downtime).

OEE sums it all up into one number for all to see and work towards bettering the process.  The key point being if you improve in one area, but that just makes another of the process limiters grow then you are not really gaining anything.

A 48 hour study is a tool that requires taking a reading every hour on the hour for 48 straight production hours.  The state of the process is recorded (running, down, changeover, etc) how much WIP is waiting to be ran, and whatever other key measurements you deem necessary.  Once the data is taken for the full 48 hours it is used to create a pareto chart or similar to show the key reasons that the machine was not performing as well as it possibly could.  It is a great way to ferret out differences in shift structure, how material flow impacts the process among many other great things.