In the global marketplace, no business is a self-contained island. No matter how effective your internal material movement, to be a future-thinking business, you must go to the next step and develop long-term supplier partnerships built on a dedication to continuous improvement and the basic concepts of Lean implementation. Lean Supplier Developmen

Four questions determine whether a company is using interorganizational cost management. Does your firm set specific cost-reduction objectives for its suppliers? Does your firm help its customers and/or suppliers find ways to achieve their cost-education objectives? Does your firm take into account the profitability of its suppliers when negotiating component pricing with them? Is your firm continuously making its buyer-supplier interfaces more efficient? If the answer to any of these questions is ""no"", your firm risks introducing products that cost too much or are not competitive. The full potential of the supply network can be realized only when the entire supply chain adopts interorganizational cost management practices. Competitive pressure has led many firms to try to increase the efficiency of supplier firms through interorganizational cost management systems, a structured approach to coordinating the activities of firms in a supplier network to reduce the total costs in the network. It is particularly important to lean enterprises for two reasons: Lean enterprises typically outsource more of the added value of their products than their mass producer counterparts. Lean enterprises usually compete more aggressively and must manage costs more effectively. Interorganizational cost management can reduce costs in three ways: through product design, through product manufacture and through cooperative approaches between buyers and suppliers to build smoother interfaces. However, more than just cost management must cross interorganizational boundaries. Suppliers are also a major source of innovation for lean enterprises. Successful supplier networks encourage every firm in the network to innovate and compete more aggressively. Read this book to learn to manage the supply chain to forge competitive advantage while reducing costs.

The purpose of this book is to describe how lean and supply chain management can be combined to achieve world-class business performance. To accomplish this purpose, the book contains both basic material on lean and supply chain management, as well as content from current journal research findings, strategies, issues, concepts, philosophies, procedures, methodologies, and practices in managing a lean supply chain. Presented in a topical fashion, the chapters deal with a wide-range of subjects that support, nurture, and advance principles, concepts, and methodologies of lean supply chain management.

Unlike other strategic procurement guides, Lean Supply Chain Management considers an organization's "business condition" as a contributing factor in the development of a strategic procurement strategy. That is, rather than taking a "one-size fits all" approach, the author's more individualized approach illustrates techniques specific to organizations operating in a standard or crisis environment. Highlights include: Methods for developing and tracking strategic procurement initiatives. Planning in the "standard" and "crisis" environments. Coordinating supply chain management and lean manufacturing. Performance measurement tools. Lean Supply Chain Management provides purchasers and supplier development professionals with the tools needed to transform procurement from a mere cost center to a profit generator.

Presenting an alternate approach to supply chain management, Lean Supply Chain Management Essentials: A Framework for Materials Managers explains why the traditional materials planning environment, typically embodied by an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, is an ineffective support system for a company that wants to adopt Lean practices.

Speed to market, reducing costs, and accelerating leadtimes are vital for survival in today's competitiveenvironment. Inventory is no longer considered an asset,and strategies are needed to operate with minimalinventories. Lean Six Sigma Logistics provides thevehicle to solidify strategic position, win overcustomers, and achieve ......

This is a complete and easy-to-understand approach to successfully implementing Lean principles. The text also provides a wide range of tools, techniques, and examples to support your systematic and continous Lean journey.

Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit Adapting agile practices to your development organization Uncovering and eradicating waste throughout the software development lifecycle Practical techniques for every development manager, project manager, and technical leader Lean software development: applying agile principles to your organization In Lean Software Development, Mary and Tom Poppendieck identify seven fundamental "lean" principles, adapt them for the world of software development, and show how they can serve as the foundation for agile development approaches that work. Along the way, they introduce 22 "thinking tools" that can help you customize the right agile practices for any environment. Better, cheaper, faster software development. You can have all three–if you adopt the same lean principles that have already revolutionized manufacturing, logistics and product development. Iterating towards excellence: software development as an exercise in discovery Managing uncertainty: "decide as late as possible" by building change into the system. Compressing the value stream: rapid development, feedback, and improvement Empowering teams and individuals without compromising coordination Software with integrity: promoting coherence, usability, fitness, maintainability, and adaptability How to "see the whole"–even when your developers are scattered across multiple locations and contractors Simply put, Lean Software Development helps you refocus development on value, flow, and people–so you can achieve breakthrough quality, savings, speed, and business alignment.