Human Lean

'Lean' in this title refers to operations management, the Toyota Production System, and its derivatives. The book is a companion volume to The Lean Toolbox which focused on operational tools and techniques whereas this book is focused on the essential human aspects of Lean transformation. The book is a sourcebook for practitioners and managers covering a wide range of concepts, providing sufficient information to grasp the essentials of each topic and giving leads to further reading. The Chapters include Antecedents and myths, Established Lean people practices, Eight models of people at work, Systems aspects, Psychology aspects, Engagement, Problems, Decisions, Learning, Leadership, Teams, Organisations, Ergonomics. The work of more than 150 authorities from operations, psychology, systems, and change are drawn on to give a comprehensive overview. The authors' extensive knowledge and experience complement each section. As with The Lean Toolbox, the text is concise, written for busy managers who seek both a guide and a quick reference.

Encouraging a long overdue shift in thinking, this book gives managers and executives the means to maximize employee potential by first showing them how to increase the improvement power of their HR departments. Cheryl M. Jekiel, who has been implementing Lean initiatives out of HR offices for 20 years, defines the people-related approaches and practices needed to alter any cultural dynamic that keeps employees from leveraging their peak abilities. She looks at why so many companies allow this sort of waste to exist, how traditional HR departments have not been especially effective in combating waste, and why today’s HR department should be seen differently, as a partner delivering exceptional customer service to employees. Everyone Needs to Learn and Improve Everyone Needs to Participate and Be Involved Ultimately, lasting change requires evolution in an organizational cultural and to achieve such change requires definitive changes in behavior. To ensure that changes are properly paced and effectively put into operation, the book puts forth a proven five-year plan that includes the building of improvement-linked competencies into each job. Everyone Can Lead Lead with the Customer in Mind Lead by Teaching and Coaching Lead by Creating More Leaders A final section is designed especially for CEOs who must address their own views of HR before addressing improvement. They must recognize that Lean HR strategies and methods can be used to create a highly motivating place to work, and that anything less would be a waste of talent. To begin, an organization must realize the value of its HR staff and put it to use implementing improvement that is organic, fundamental, and self perpetuating.

Changing an organization from a mass manufacturing environment to a lean environment is significant and affects all levels of the company if the implementation is done correctly. Many times, however, lean implementers become so involved with the nuts and bolts of lean implementation that the "people" side of the business is neglected. Transform your HR Department into an Agent of Change during Lean Implementation. With an HR perspective, veteran consultants Chris Harris and Rick Harris walk readers through a simple, step-by-step proven method for transforming a mass production workforce into a lean thinking one that possesses the necessary skills, training, and attitude to march in a new direction. They explain the role of human resources in a lean-oriented facility, emphasizing systematic training that continues for all employees. They also discuss the value of promoting employees from within a facility to team leader and group leader positions, and the importance of flexibility. This critically acclaimed book includes sample training sessions with explanations. Most of us are now far enough down the path in lean production to realize that the results lie in the details. This short volume presents all of the details you will need to create a frontline workforce and system of direct supervision that can effectively plan, do, reflect, and adjust, as you move your own operations steadily ahead. --James Womack, Chairman, Lean Enterprise Institute

Interest in the phenomenon known as "lean" has grown significantly in recent years. This is the first volume to provide an academically rigorous overview of the field of lean management, introducing the reader to the application of lean in diverse application areas, from the production floor to sales and marketing, from the automobile industry to academic institutions. The volume collects contributions from well-known lean experts and up-and-coming scholars from around the world. The chapters provide a detailed description of lean management across the manufacturing enterprise (supply chain, accounting, production, sales, IT etc.), and offer important perspectives for applying lean across different industries (construction, healthcare, logistics). The contributors address challenges and opportunities for future development in each of the lean application areas, concluding most chapters with a short case study to illustrate current best practice. The book is divided into three parts: The Lean Enterprise Lean across Industries A Lean World. This handbook is an excellent resource for business and management students as well as any academics, scholars, practitioners, and consultants interested in the "lean world."

Lean Human Resources addresses a critical issue facing organisations undertaking lean transformation or attempting to create a lean culture of continuous improvement. People are the single biggest factor necessary to ensure success, but it is common for the role of the HR department to be overlooked. Cheryl M. Jekiel, who has been implementing Lean initiatives out of HR offices for more than 20 years, defines the people-related approaches and practices required for success. She explains how the HR function must work hand-in-hand with senior leaders to alter the cultural dynamic that keeps employees from leveraging their peak abilities, analysing why so many companies allow this sort of waste to exist and how traditional HR departments have not been especially effective in combating waste. The book provides continuous improvement professionals, executives and business owners with the means to maximize employee potential by showing them how to increase the improvement power of their HR departments. It also helps them understand what lean transformations can achieve with the correct investment of time, funds, resources and leadership approach. It is also the perfect introduction to lean for those working in HR, explaining the role they should take to support lean implementation and help their colleagues achieve their full potential. Much has been learned since the first edition published five years ago based on the hundreds of conversations the author has had about Lean HR with people from all over the world. This new edition brings Lean Human Resources right up-to-date.

This book by Peter Béndek presents a strong case against the current practice of business operations improvement, based on numerous studies from the business world as well as insights from the most prestigious authors of the last fifty years. The author contests the applicability and indeed the relevance of the Toyota Production System and its spin-offs to the Western context, claiming that a revised approach is much better suited to taking our specific cultural conditions into account, while also combining increased transparency, speed, and sustainability of change with a robust value-creating capability. Dr. Béndek argues that this approach can have a far-reaching impact on corporate cultures by offering an all-encompassing learning system, one that provides a more coherent and actionable continuous improvement strategy than conventional approaches. The book offers an important guide to rethinking operations management, both in academia and business practice.

Currently, businesses are forced to be more innovative than ever before. Organizations must be sensitive to global trends -- such as digitization, globalization, and automation -- and at the same time build resilience and flexibility to combat unexpected changes in customer demand. The coronavirus pandemic is just the most recent and pronounced example of this new-normal business necessity. Amidst the disruption, many businesses are caught not knowing how to proceed. How ought one pursue or achieve innovation for the company? Are there different innovation strategies? Why might a business leader choose one over the other? The Lean Innovation Cycle addresses these concerns by introducing a new multidisciplinary framework for both thinking about and pursing innovation. By taking key concepts from the quality management practices of Lean and Six Sigma, the framework augments these tools and disciplines by incorporating other problem-solving and design techniques, including Human-Centered Design. The result is a view of innovation that many business leaders will find fits nicely into their existing paradigm of strategy and operational discipline. After the introduction of the framework, the book turns to understanding the differences, advantages, and tradeoffs in pursuing Lean Innovation in lieu of traditional, technologically driven innovation approaches. To this end, the book considers issues of sustainability, organizational strategy, and competitive advantage. The result is a thought-provoking dialogue that informs the reader about the key considerations of how best to pursue innovation within their business and the business environment, as well as the circumstances that might make one innovation strategy more congruent to an organization’s culture, goals, and objectives than the other.

As companies continue their efforts to improve work performance, they must ensure that their ongoing Lean activities include a healthy appreciation for, and recognition of, human performance. Ignoring the human component of work performance can be a recipe for unnecessary waste, inefficiency, and decreased productivity. Lean Human Performance Improvement presents a broad overview of human performance in the workplace. The author discusses his findings from a broad spectrum of human performance-related fields and diverse industrial sectors (gained by working in the field for over 30 years). Organized in three sections, this book covers understanding human performance, analyzing and improving work productivity, and analyzing and improving quality and safety. The author first develops a fundamental and basic understanding of human performance, then couples that understanding with learning how to analyze and improve human-related work productivity and quality and safety. He also discusses how knowledge and skills transfer from one work setting to another. Intended for Lean Six Sigma team members and human performance improvement practitioners, the book contains multiple examples from diverse work settings to explain key points. It also includes several major case studies. The goal of all examples and case studies is to develop a generic understanding that, in turn, can be successfully applied to any work setting.