Augmented Lean: A Human-Centric Framework for Managing Frontline Operations

Explore the real future of work in this expert tech implementation guide that goes beyond automation

In Augmented Lean: A Human-Centric Framework for Managing Frontline Operations, serial startup founder Dr. Natan Linder and futurist podcaster Dr. Trond Arne Undheim deliver an urgent and incisive exploration of how to facilitate agile processes amongst a millennial workforce that already lives by many of its tenets. The book demonstrates how to abandon legacy industrial technology that is failing modern operations and hindering operational excellence and digital progress. As an executive and leader, you cannot fall prey to hyped-up notions of industry 4.0's factory of the future automation, artificial intelligence, internet of things, sensors, digital twins, and augmented reality fixing every problem. Instead, to truly reduce cognitive load, complexity, and frustrations in the workplace, we must build cyber-physical technologies so that humans remain at the center. Leaders must ensure that the technology they deploy at an industrial scale has fluid interfaces that demonstrably simplifies work and makes operations more flexible without introducing fear, uncertainty, or doubt.

The authors provide:

• A step-by-step walkthrough of the Augmented Lean framework that shows readers when, how, and why to augment your workforce through cyber-physical principles that go beyond both Lean and Agile management practices
• Concrete strategies on how to scale these operational augmentation methods throughout your organization based on real-world case studies of operators in the trenches of manufacturing whose impact far outweighs their seniority in the corporate hierarchy
• Insightful advice for how to use the augmentation framework in small- and medium-sized enterprises where license and training costs are prohibitive when only using off-the-shelf industry 4.0 approaches

A thoroughly practical playbook for augmenting your workforce with the latest cyber-physical adaptations to digital technologies, Augmented Lean provides you with the organizational-, process-, and management-level techniques you need to get the most out of your employees. In turn, as an operator, engineer, or industrial worker reading this book, you will become empowered to be a change agent through no-code interfaces instead of remaining a recipient of endless training demands and ever-increasing technological complexity. Augmented Lean will orient you towards the future with the most effective tools to cut through hype so you can instantly apply your learnings and be productive wherever you currently operate.

NATAN LINDER, PHD, is Co-founder and CEO of the frontline operations platform Tulip, and the Co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Formlabs, a pioneer in professional desktop 3D printing. He received his doctorate from MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces Group.

TROND ARNE UNDHEIM, PHD, is a futurist, podcaster, venture partner, Co-founder of Yegii, and formerly with MIT, WPP, Oracle, and the EU. He received his doctorate in the Future of Work and Artificial Intelligence from the NTNU’s Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences.