Lean Transformation

Known worldwide in manufacturing among those striving to maximize productivity and create pull scheduling of production as "the yellow book," this is the premier how to book for companies going lean. Touted by experts everywhere as practical, down-to-earth, and easy to read, it warns of cultural issues that are certain to arise, and gives step by step instructions for making the transformation. It clearly explains such tools as continuous flow, value stream mapping, kanban, kaizen, six sigma, just-in-time (JIT), techniques for quick set-ups, and other pillars of the Toyota Production System. It's full of examples of value stream mapping, how kanban can resolve material supply issues, how kaizen brainstorming can result in startling improvements overnight, how just-in-me (JIT) frees mountains of money tied up in work-in-progress, why Six Sigma quality needs to be built in and not inspected in, how bottlenecks can be eliminated, kanban snafus spotted before they happen, and how instilling a championship mentality in cross-functional teams an lead to increased productivity and continuous improvement that doesn't stop after the initial kaizen event.

Updated with new information, illustrations, and leadership tools, Leading the Lean Enterprise Transformation, Second Edition describes how the metrics used by Toyota drive every line item in a financial statement in the right direction. Rather than focus on Lean tools and principles, the new edition of this bestselling reference focuses on what may be the least understood and most critical aspect of a Lean transformation: the building of a Lean culture. In addition to new appendices with background information and insightful stories on Lean leadership and implementation, it includes new information on tactical organization practices, strategy deployment, and Lean culture. An inductee to IndustryWeek's Hall of Fame, George Koenigsaecker illustrates successful strategies and valuable lessons learned with case histories of U.S. leaders who have been instrumental in bringing Lean to the forefront. He explains the use of value stream analysis at the leadership level and describes how to structure kaizen events that can improve the value stream. Organized in the chronological sequence that a leader embarking on a Lean journey would experience, the book discusses the methods used by the author during the Hon Company’s successful Lean conversion, which doubled productivity, tripled revenues, and led IndustryWeek to recognize Hon as one of the "World’s 100 Best Managed Firms." The book not only introduces powerful leadership tools—including strategy deployment, transformation value stream analysis, and transformation plan of care—but also arms potential change agents with the soft skills needed to define, develop, and communicate their vision. Detailing the steps required to sustain improvements, it supplies time-tested guidance for effective leadership throughout a Lean transformation in any organization.

Winner of a Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award Information Technology is supposed to enable business performance and innovation, improve service levels, manage change, and maintain quality and stability, all while steadily reducing operating costs. Yet when an enterprise begins a Lean transformation, too often the IT department is either left out or viewed as an obstacle. What is to be done? Winner of a 2011 Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award, this book shares practical tips, examples, and case studies to help you establish a culture of continuous improvement to deliver IT operational excellence and business value to your organization. Praise for: ...will have a permanent place in my bookshelf. —Gene Kim, Chief Technology Officer, Tripwire, Inc. ... provides an unprecedented look at the role that Lean IT will play in making this revolutionary shift and the critical steps for sustained success. —Steve Castellanos, Lean Enterprise Director, Nike, Inc. Twenty years from now the firms which dominate their industries will have fully embraced Lean strategies throughout their IT organizations. —Scott W. Ambler, Chief Methodologist for Agile and Lean, IBM Rational ... a great survival manual for those needing nimble and adaptive systems. —Dr. David Labby, MD, PhD, Medical Director and Director of Clinical Support and Innovation, CareOregon ... makes a major contribution in an often-ignored but much-needed area. —John Bicheno, Program Director MS in Lean Operations, Cardiff University ... a comprehensive view into the world of Lean IT, a must read! —Dave Wilson, Quality Management, Oregon Health & Science University

This book is a crucial resource for Lean practitioners (experienced or not) who are seeking: insight on how to gain more from their Lean efforts, how to overcome resistance to change (that is, to effectively convey 'What’s in it for me?' to their business associates), and to understand how other companies have overcome the barriers to implementing Lean and incorporated it as the common-sense approach to continuous improvement. The author shares his specific experiences with Lean transformations—some successes and some failures. His insightful perspective shows readers how the understanding of Lean progresses from theory to common sense to common practice. The Lean initiative is not merely a transformation of skills, but the development of a robust continuous-improvement culture. The book includes more than 60 case-in-point examples, across a diversified range of industries, based on the author’s hands-on experience with many multinational corporations. These case-in-point examples show transformations that have resulted in $200+ million verified annualized savings for a diversified array of industries. The author details his journey from industry Lean practitioner to a consultant in a top-tier consultancy firm to developing his own consulting practice.

In this groundbreaking sequel to The Gold Mine, authors Michael and Freddy Ballé present a compelling story that teaches readers the most important lean lesson of all: how to transform themselves and their workers through the discipline of learning the lean system. The Lean Manager: A Novel of Lean Transformation reveals how individuals can go beyond the short-term gains from tools, and realize a deeper, sustainable path of improvement. Full of human moments that capture the excitement and drama of lean implementation, as well as clear explanations of how tools and systems go hand-in-hand, this book will teach and inspire every person working to make lean a reality in their organization today. This book will help you learn both the how of doing lean, as well as the why behind the tools, enabling you to become lean. Lean is the most important business model for competitive success today. Yet companies still struggle to sustain enduring and deep-rooted business success from their lean implementation efforts. The most important problem for these companies is becoming lean: how can they advance beyond realizing isolated gains from deploying lean tools, to fundamentally changing how they operate, think, and learn? In other words, how can companies learn to go beyond lean turnaround to achieve lean transformation? The Lean Manager: A Novel of Lean Transformation, by lean experts Michael and Freddy Ballé, addresses this critical problem. As we move from what Jim Womack, author, lean management authority, and LEI founder, calls “the era of lean tools to the era of lean management,” The Lean Manager gives companies a definitive guide for sustaining their ability to learn and improve operations and financial performance, while continually developing people. “The only way to become and stay lean is to produce lean managers,” says Womack. “Every isolated effort will recede—or fail—unless companies learn to use the lean process as a way of developing individual problem-solvers with the ownership, initiative, and know-how to solve problems, learn, and ultimately coach new individuals in this discipline. That’s why this book matters so much.” The Lean Manager, the sequel to the Ballé’s international bestselling business novel The Gold Mine, tells the compelling story of plant manager Andrew Ward as he goes through the challenging but rewarding journey to becoming a lean manager. Under the guidance of Phil Jenkinson (whose own lean journey was at the core of The Gold Mine), Ward learns to use a deep understanding of lean tools, as well as a technical know-how of his plant’s operations, to foster a lean attitude that sustains continuous improvement. Where The Gold Mine shows you how to introduce a complete lean system, The Lean Manager demonstrates how to sustain it. Ward moves beyond fluency with tools to changing his behavior as a manager and leader. He shifts from giving orders and answers to asking the right questions so people identify and address problems. He learns how to use tools to unleash the creativity and motivation of people, so they learn how to solve problems as well as coach and teach others to solve problems. Ward learns how to create lean managers. “I am excited and have hopes that this book will enlighten readers about what it really means to live a business transformation that puts customers first and does this through developing people,” said Jeffrey Liker, author of The Toyota Way and professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan. “People who do the work have to improve the work. There are tools, but they are not tools for ‘improving the process.’ They are tools for making problems visible and for helping people think about how to solve those problems.”

Tracing the author’s decades-long continuous improvement journey, Relentless Improvement: True Stories of Lean Transformations walks readers through vivid shop floor experiences to convey a genuine feel for the environments in which Lean Six Sigma transformations occur. Recounting numerous Lean Six Sigma transformations, it illustrates the spectrum of successful operational tactics. The story starts just outside Detroit, Michigan in the 1970s when the auto industry was booming, and most people in the area worked in the car factories, or in one of the component factories that supplied the Big Three. The complexity and detail of the projects grow chapter by chapter. The book begins by explaining how to manage Lean basics such as applying 5S, shortening product cycle times, and creating standard work. It then progresses to factory Lean Six Sigma transformations. Providing implementation guidance geared to functions on the operational level, the book: Presents stories based on the author’s interactions with company leaders and shop-floor employees in the midst of great change Illustrates real-world plant politics and manufacturing situations using compelling stories Highlights valuable lessons learned at the end of each chapter Using an engaging story format, the book recounts the author’s career experiences to provide you with a real-world understanding of how to use Lean tools. The stories in the book illustrate everything from standard work and takt time to Kaizen events and Total Productive Maintenance. The text also includes accounts of "front end" or administrative processes such as product development and materials handling.

With 30 years of driving Lean transformations under his belt—both in-house at Danaher and as the founder of Lean Horizons—Mark C. DeLuzio has a vantage point across a variety of industries. He often hears the challenges Lean leaders face now that they’ve been implementing Lean for a decade or more. They are concerned that they aren’t getting the results they used to, and they don’t know why. Most leaders believe their problems are unique to their company, but Mark sees more commonalities than differences. Flatlined: Why Lean Transformations Fail and What to Do About It draws on the author’s experience as the original pioneer of the most successful Lean business system next to Toyota, as well as his progress over the past 18 years in helping companies replicate what Danaher achieved. Mark DeLuzio knows you need an actionable approach to make rapid shifts, not theory. With this book, Mark DeLuzio gives you: • the reasons why companies are now flatlining with Lean; • five steps to solving this problem, no matter what your industry or corporate culture; • real talk on why your organization is probably mediocre (even if it’s making a lot of money) and how to disrupt it to make it genuinely world class; • the questions you should always be asking at every stage and level of your Lean initiative.

Lean Transformations for Small and Medium Enterprises: Lessons Learned from Italian Businesses summarizes two decades of research, teaching, and practice on lean thinking. Based on quantitative analysis of 100 cases of Lean transformations and 20 in-depth case studies of successfully transformed SMEs, it explains how to undertake lean transformations that lead to operational and financial performance improvement, and uses the Lean Transformation Framework --conceptualized by John Shook at the Lean Enterprise Institute—as a practical approach to design and de-risk the transformation process. SMEs’ leaders wishing to undertake and sustain a lean transformation must: Make a serious and lasting commitment to transform, avoiding the temptation to change course of action; Choose accurately the value streams that require improvement as defined by strategy deployment; Build capabilities to sustain the transformation; Lead by example by going to gemba and creating a culture of respect for people that goes beyond the visible devices and artifacts of Lean tools.