Lean Management Principles for Information Technology

Whether it's because of a lack of understanding, poor planning, or a myriad of other things, 50 to 60 percent of the IT effort in most companies can be considered waste. Explaining how to introduce Lean principles to your IT functions to reduce and even eliminate this waste, Lean Management Principles for Information Technology provides the tools and understanding to make better decisions, increase efficiencies, and make IT a major force in delivering sustainable improvements to your supply chain.

The proven Toyota Production System principles described in this book have already helped many IT organizations double and triple their output. It introduces some of the most powerful Lean tools and techniques―including Six Sigma, value stream mapping, and spaghetti charting―and provides a methodology for implementing them to reduce waste in your IT environment. Discussing information production processes, IT systems, and change management through the lens of Lean principles, the book:

• Provides step-by-step guidance through the processes of implementing Lean principles in your IT supply chain management system
• Illustrates successful implementation across a range of industries and countries
• Examines how to use Lean methods to achieve ongoing improvement in IT personnel
• Explains how to implement Lean in the supply chain, while reducing IT cycle time and costs

The text reviews the major management challenges facing IT and illustrates solutions with stories, examples, and case studies of how Lean IT has led to unprecedented improvements in the private and government sectors. Demonstrating how to structure the components of your IT system in accordance with Lean, the book details the measures required to achieve and sustain a world-class Lean IT supply chain management system.

Dr. Gerhard Plenert has 25+ years of professional experience in IT quality and productivity consulting and in working on manufacturing planning and scheduling methods. He has 13 years of academic experience and has over 150 published articles and nine books:

EManager: Value Chain Management in an eCommerce World―2001
Finite Capacity Scheduling (an APICS / Oliver White Series Book)―2000
International Management and Production: Survival Techniques for Corporate America
International Operations Management (an MBA textbook)―2004
Making Innovation Happen: Concept Management through Integration
Operations Management (A United Nations Training Manual for Developing Country factories)―2005
The Plant Operations Deskbook (an APICS series book)
Reinventing Lean; Introducing Lean Management into the Supply Chain―2007
World Class Manager

Dr. Plenert has extensive industry experience, including:

Private sector

• Kraft Foods, Smart and Final, Davis Lay, Ritz-Carlton, Hewlett-Packard, Seagate, Motorola, PPI, Clark Equipment, NCR Corporation, and AT&T
• Consulting companies―Infosys, Mainstream, AMS, IBM, SCI, SAS
• Corporate "guru" on supply chain management for AMS and Infosys

Government sector

• California―DCSS, DHS
• Federal―DSS, US Air Force, Air Guard
• International―United Nations
• Texas―OAG
• New York―City of New York warehousing system

Dr. Plenert has extensive academic experience:

• Ph.D. in mineral economics at the Colorado School of Mines, which is their operations and business management degree (under Gene Woolsey)
• Eleven years as a full-time faculty member (BYU and CSUC)
• Currently teaching SCM at the University of San Diego
• Teaching operations, manufacturing, and supply chain management as far away as Malaysia and England

Dr. Plenert has:

• Worked in senior management
• Generated up to triple the office productivity with the same staffing
• Worked as an industry consultant implementing SCM, ERP, and eBusiness systems and designing a next-generation enterprise model
• Literally "written the book" on leading-edge supply chain management concepts like Finite Capacity Scheduling (FCS), Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS), and World Class Management
• Taken a 14+% defect rate down to 2%
• Brought setup times from 20 minutes to as low as 6 minutes
• Reduced facility-wide inventories by 40%

Dr. Plenert’s ideas and publications have been endorsed by people like Steven Covey and companies like Motorola, AT&T, Black & Decker, and FedEx.