I like what Mark Ramm says here....  There's much that software development can gain from Lean manufacturing.  It's not that  software development operations should adopt manufacturing processes, per se -- but many of the principles of lean thinking can be extracted from lean manufacturing and applied to improve software development. 

That said, If you're looking for a model to help you apply lean thinking to software, you may find lean product development to be an even better fit than lean manufacturing. 

I saw a webinar on Lean Product and Process Development a while back that was put on by Durward Sobek through the Lean Enterprise Institute.  I captured a few notes from the webinar on what Durward called "the basics":

• The object of the game is to make a profit consistently
• The operational value stream generates the profit
• The rate and quality of output from development depend critically on knowledge. 
• Generate knowledge through set-based concurrent engineering.
• Grow teams of experts who can use, generate useful knowledge
• Establish and support entrepreneurial system designers
• Eliminate overburden, instability, and waste through cadence, pull, and flow. 

For much more, check out this book by Allan C. Ward called Lean Product and Process Development. 

Update: I heard from Durward Sobek, and you can see an archived version of the webinar here for yourself!