Real Lean: Unsolved Problems in Lean Management (Volume Six) - Softcover

Emiliani, Bob

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0984540008 ISBN 13: 9780984540006

Publisher: Center for Lean Business Management, LLC, The, 2010

Synopsis

REAL LEAN (Volume Six) closes the series by turning a bright, unflinching light on the major problems the Lean community has failed to solve, and offering creative, original countermeasures. It opens with a candid contribution from Art Byrne, the former CEO who led The Wiremold Company's celebrated transformation, reflecting on nearly 30 years of practice and why, despite soaring awareness of Lean, real Lean leaders remain so rare. From there the book diagnoses the field's persistent, self-inflicted failures with characteristic directness.

This book helps readers by:

• Learning From a Master Practitioner. Art Byrne's reflections and a set of reader-contributed problems explain why Lean leadership remains rare despite widespread awareness.
• Exposing the Field's Blind Spots. Diagnoses the flawed reasoning and selective perception that keep Lean practitioners from seeing their own failures.
• Naming Lean's Corruptions. Exposes how Lean degrades in practice, via delegated gemba walks, distorted tools, and the office politics that hollow out "Respect for People."
• Confronting the Zero-Sum Trap. Explains how zero-sum thinking and unintended harm betray Lean's non-zero-sum core.
• Situating Lean in a Bigger Picture. Connects Lean to economics, politics, and the long history of progressive management.
• Sustaining Change Against the Odds. Address why change agents burn out and how to keep genuine, thinking-driven Lean aloft.

Direct, original, and unafraid to name what others avoid, this final volume gives the Lean community its unfinished agenda – the problems that most need work – along with practical, creative ways forward. For serious practitioners, leaders, and scholars, Volume Six is both a fitting capstone to the REAL LEAN series and a challenge to finally solve what the field has long left unsolved.

About this title

About the Author

Dr. Bob Emiliani has been a progressive management practitioner and researcher for over 30 years. He worked in industry for 15 years and had management responsibility in engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain management at Pratt & Whitney. Bob was part of a team responsible for implementing TPS principles and practices in both manufacturing and supply chains at Pratt & Whitney. Subsequently, he was full-time professor for 23 years. He now holds the honorary title of Professor Emeritus. Bob was the first academic to establish a research agenda focused on Lean leadership, resulting in numerous publications and varied leadership development workshops. Bob is a prolific, versatile, and award-winning writer whose publications span engineering, business, social sciences, and humanities. He has authored or co-authored 28 books and 45 peer-reviewed papers across six different disciplines (leadership, management, management history, supply chain management, higher education, and materials engineering). His work is widely recognized and he is praised for being a unique voice and a creative thinker.

From the Back Cover

The REAL LEAN series of books explains Lean management in ways that hundreds of other books do not. These original and creative works are written for hands-on Lean practitioners. Each volume is thoroughly researched and well documented, and provides an abundance of new information and perspectives to help ensure success with Lean management. This sixth volume of the REAL LEAN series shines a bright light on several major unsolved problems in Lean management and also identifies practical countermeasures using creative and original Lean thinking. It includes a special interview with the retired CEO of The Wiremold Company, Art Byrne, reflecting on his nearly 30 years of Lean practice. This volume also helps focus the Lean community's attention on specific areas to work on in order to advance manager's understanding and practice of Lean management. As with prior Volumes of REAL LEAN, Volume Six emphasizes Lean as a management system and the "Respect for People" principle because both are usually missing from the practice of Lean management today. Readers will find this book to be amazingly insightful and filled with practical information that will help them better comprehend and put REAL LEAN into practice every day.

Edition details

• Publisher: Center for Lean Business Management, LLC, The
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0984540008
• ISBN 13: 9780984540006
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 238