The contribution is focused on selected innovative methods and techniques of the lean manufacturing. There is characterized the lean manufacturing and the main differences between two conceptions of production strategies the American "Buffered" and the Japanese "lean." In the article are listed methods and measurable quantities of lean manufacturing. Special attention is paid to visual factory, which is based on method of 5S.
In the paper the sustainable development in historical view and theoretical aspects (conception, definition and aims of sustainable, dominant trends in UE agriculture) was presented. In the research on this problem, construction of the tools and models for the estimation of farms sustainable development level is necessary – the paper presents mythological trial of systematization of the principal indicators groups on this estimation.