Sustaining Lean

Winner of a Shingo Research and Professional Publication AwardThe new edition of this Shingo Prize-winning bestseller provides critical insights and approaches to make any Lean transformation an ongoing success. It shows you how to implement a sustainable, successful transformation by developing a culture that has your stakeholders throughout the o

At Clay Bottom Farm, author Ben Hartman and staff practice kaizen, or continuous improvement, cutting out more waste--of time, labor, space, money, and more--every year and aligning their organic production more tightly with customer demand. Applied alongside other lean principles originally developed by the Japanese auto industry, the end result has been increased profits and less work. In this field-guide companion to his award-winning first book, The Lean Farm, Hartman shows market vegetable growers in even more detail how Clay Bottom Farm implements lean thinking in every area of their work, including using kanbans, or replacement signals, to maximize land use; germination chambers to reduce defect waste; and right-sized machinery to save money and labor and increase efficiency. From finding land and assessing infrastructure needs to selling perfect produce at the farmers market, The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables digs deeper into specific, tested methods for waste-free farming that not only help farmers become more successful but make the work more enjoyable. These methods include: Using Japanese paper pot transplanters Building your own germinating chambers Leaning up your greenhouse Making and applying simple composts Using lean techniques for pest and weed control Creating Heijunka, or load-leveling calendars for efficient planning Farming is not static, and improvement requires constant change. The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables offers strategies for farmers to stay flexible and profitable even in the face of changing weather and markets. Much more than a simple exercise in cost-cutting, lean farming is about growing better, not cheaper, food--the food your customers want.

Lean is about building and improving stable and predictable systems and processes to deliver to customers high-quality products/services on time by engaging everyone in the organization. Combined with this, organizations need to create an environment of respect for people and continuous learning. It’s all about people. People create the product or service, drive innovation, and create systems and processes, and with leadership buy-in and accountability to ensure sustainment with this philosophy, employees will be committed to the organization as they learn and grow personally and professionally. Lean is a term that describes a way of thinking about and managing companies as an enterprise. Becoming Lean requires the following: the continual pursuit to identify and eliminate waste; the establishment of efficient flow of both information and process; and an unwavering top-level commitment. The concept of continuous improvement applies to any process in any industry. Based on the contents of The Lean Practitioners Field Book, the purpose of this series is to show, in detail, how any process can be improved utilizing a combination of tasks and people tools and introduces the BASICS Lean® concept. The books are designed for all levels of Lean practitioners and introduces proven tools for analysis and implementation that go beyond the traditional point kaizen event. Each book can be used as a stand-alone volume or used in combination with other titles based on specific needs. Each book is chock-full of case studies and stories from the authors’ own experiences in training organizations that have started or are continuing their Lean journey of continuous improvement. Contents include valuable lessons learned and each chapter concludes with questions pertaining to the focus of the chapter. Numerous photographs enrich and illustrate specific tools used in Lean methodology. Sustaining Lean: Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement focuses on standard work audits, training, Lean Practitioner certification, Hoshin planning, Lean Leadership, and how to run effective meetings. The authors discuss the cultural transformation which must occur to create a Lean culture by understanding what the components are in this culture. The importance of training and the value of the person are also discussed, as is what it takes to be a Lean leader.

Among the first books to focus on physician engagement during a Lean effort, Sustaining Lean in Healthcare: Developing and Engaging Physician Leadership explains how to ensure ongoing physician participation long after the consultant leaves. Dr. Michael Nelson, an early adopter of Lean in healthcare, explains how to use these synergic tools to achi

Bring Lean Improvements to the Administrative Areas of Your Organization! Extending their eight-step process to the realization of a lean office, Tapping and Shuker use a customer service case studyto illustrate the effectiveness of the value stream storyboard.This popular volume provides organizations with a proven system for implementing lean principles in the office. In addition to providing a thorough overview of basic lean concepts, this book details methods for identifying the administrative activities in need of attention. To address these, it applies the eight-step process for removing waste and reorganizing workflow. Accompanying the book are downloadable resources containing a lean assessment tool, a storyboard template, charts, a team charter, and worksheets. Along with this book you receive downloadable resources containing a lean assessment tool, a storyboard template, useful charts, a team charter, forms, reports, and worksheets!

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

For many years, lean initiatives have generated staggering improvements on the shop floor. Currently, however, many managers and business leaders want these lean benefits incorporated into non-traditional environments such as service and transactions. This bookshows you how to efficiently translate and transition lean manufacturing principles into the office. In Flow in the Office, Carlos Venegas confirms that the competitive advantage will go to those who manage information and knowledge most effectively and efficiently. It is not enough to be a lean manufacturer - you need to be a lean business, and that includes your back office, your front office, and your corner office. The author translates the language of Lean Manufacturing into the language of Lean Office Flow, bringing bits, bytes, and conversations into the concrete world of process improvement.

What is "Lean?" Whether referring to manufacturing operations or maintenance, lean is about doing more with less: less effort, less space, fewer defects, less throughput time, lower volume requirements, less capital for a given level of output, etc. The need to provide the customer more value with less waste is a necessity for any firm wanting to stay in business, especially in today's increasingly global market place. And this is what lean thinking is all about. Lean Operations are difficult to sustain. More Lean Manufacturing Plant Transformations have been abandoned than have achieved true Lean Enterprise status. There are solid and recurring reasons for both of these conditions. The most significant of these reasons is that production support processes have not been pre-positioned or refined adequately to assist the manufacturing plant in making the lean transformation. And the most significant of the support functions is the maintenance operation, which determines production line equipment reliability. Moving the maintenance operation well into its own lean transformation is a must-do prerequisite for successful manufacturing plant - or any process plant - Lean Transformations. This Handbook provides detailed, step-by-step, fully explained processes for each phase of Lean Maintenance implementation providing examples, checklists and methodologies of a quantity, detail and practicality that no previous publication has even approached. It is required reading, and a required reference, for every plant and facility that is planning, or even thinking of adopting "Lean" as their mode of operation. * A continuous improvement strategy using new "lean" principles * Eliminate wasteful practices from your manufacturing or chemical processes, increasing the profitability of your plant * Save thousands of dollars a year on new equipment by keeping your existing equipment maintained using this revolutionary method