REAL LEAN (Volume Three) confronts the hardest problem in the entire field: Not starting a Lean transformation, but keeping it alive. The book rejects the industry's habit of trumpeting positives and hiding negatives, instead painting an "unvarnished picture" of why most Lean efforts regress – and drawing repeatedly on the sobering fate of Scientific Management a century ago, whose proponents never achieved lasting, widespread adoption despite a clearly better management system. The result is a candid diagnosis of what it truly takes to sustain Lean as a management system grounded in "Respect for People."
This book helps readers by:
- Establishing a Shared, Honest Vocabulary. The Prologue and Introduction define Lean management precisely as a non-zero-sum, principle-based system, clearing away the loose definitions that let "Fake Lean" pass for the real thing.
- Exposing the Long-Wave Status Quo. Shows how the current state of conventional management persists across a century-long wave, and how executives who believe they know it all and won't learn from others' errors keep it firmly in place.
- Debunking Shortcuts to Wealth. Confronts the self-serving, zero-sum leadership that chases quick financial gains, contrasting it with the servant leadership that sustaining Lean actually demands.
- Facing Problems, Conflicts, and Costs. Honestly presents the real difficulties and tensions of a Lean transformation so leaders enter with clear eyes rather than false optimism.
- Refusing to Race to the Bottom. Challenges the "diving to the bottom" cost-cutting and offshoring logic, showing why it betrays Lean's principles and undermines long-term prosperity.
- Making Sharing Fundamental. Argues that fairly sharing the gains, the non-zero-sum core of "Respect for People," is not optional but essential to sustaining commitment.
- Cultivating Good Students. Sustaining Lean requires humble, lifelong learners at every level, especially among leaders who typically stop learning.
- Sustaining the Movement Itself. Closing thoughts widens the lens from single companies to the Lean movement as a whole, drawing on the Scientific Management movement's failure to chart how Lean can avoid the same fate.
Bracing and honest, and reinforced by appendices on the "Respect for People" principle and the Caux Round Table Principles for Business, this volume gives practitioners facts that motivate real improvement instead of comfortable illusions. For leaders genuinely committed to making Lean last, Volume Three is the candid, historically informed guide the usual success stories never provide.
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.
