# running lean (upkeep)

*Ordinarily means:* operating with minimal resources or staff.

Maintenance that holds a thing inside its window by cutting every margin until only the bare structure remains, revealing how close the walls are to collapse.

- Computed level: L15 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: emergence  ·  Arena: lexicon

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [maintenance](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-maintenance.upkeep), [margin](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-margin.spatial), [window](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-window.range), [wall](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-wall.range-end)

**Through:** noun

**Novel properties:**
- the-phrase-itself

## Examples
- Detroit's city services operated with 30% fewer workers after 2008, leaving streetlights unlit for blocks at a time. *(institutions)*
- The International Space Station's crew ran CO2 scrubbers beyond rated capacity during 2010 filter shortages. *(engineering)*
- Myanmar's 2021 internet shutdown forced hospitals to coordinate surgeries via handwritten logs for weeks. *(everyday life)*

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-running-lean.upkeep*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-running-lean.upkeep.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*