In the current climate attention has refocused on lean production. While books have looked at the principles of lean production and techniques, this book from McKinsey & Company, the world's most influential management consultancy, provides a unique approach, which is holistic in nature and argues that lean must be central to the strategy and mindset of the company or organization. It will be the most comprehensive book on the tangible and intangible aspects of lean transformation with a complete overview of how organizations should embark upon this arising from the cutting edge work done by the authors with leading companies worldwide.

The imagination has long been associated with travel and tourism; from the seventeenth century when the showman and his peepshow box would take the village crowd to places, cities and lands through the power of stories, to today when we rely on a different range of boxes to whisk us away on our imaginative travels: the television, the cinema and the computer. Even simply the notion of travel, it would seem, gives us license to daydream. The imagination thus becomes a key concept that blurs the boundaries between our everyday lives and the idea of travel. Yet, despite what appears to be a close and comfortable link, there is an absence of scholarly material looking at travel and the imagination. Bringing together geographers, sociologists, cultural researchers, philosophers, anthropologists, visual researchers, archaeologists, heritage researchers, literary scholars and creative writers, this edited collection explores the socio-cultural phenomenon of imagination and travel. The volume reflects upon imagination in the context of many forms of physical and non-physical travel, inviting scholars to explore this fascinating, yet complex, area of inquiry in all of its wonderful colour, slipperiness, mystery and intrigue. The book intends to provide a catalyst for thinking, discussion, research and writing, with the vision of generating a cannon of scholarship on travel and the imagination that is currently absent from the literature.

Lean is an essential way of working in a world that is accelerating and becoming more complex. It revalues the human dimension in the company by encouraging individual thinking and initiative and gives meaning to teams that are more and more challenged by competitiveness and innovation. This book is designed as a travel guide. The first part includes all the traditional sections from the ‘front end’ of a travel guide, including some basic vocabulary, tips, and a historical section about some of the pioneers of Lean in Engineering. The journey begins in the second part, which explains a number of Lean Engineering practices in some detail and the best itineraries to develop better products, discussing the underlying intentions and offering advice for implementation. Numerous concrete cases illustrate this part with case material drawn from the authors’ own experiences. Part Three is a brief guide to where and how to get started. Currently, there are no books on Lean Engineering written by practising engineers who have themselves experienced the adjustment of Lean principles to the business and challenges of new product development. The authors describe tools and practices that have already been widely tested and improved by many engineers with different cultures and skills in the Thales Group and other companies. Lean Engineering as we describe it has thus been able to demonstrate its effectiveness for several years. In addition, the authors describe new unique practices invented within the framework of their activities and which thus do not exist anywhere else (e.g., causal influence diagram (CID), Pull-Scheduling Board).

"Readers of "Story of a Lean Journey" will empathize with the plight of Allison Manufacturing Services (AMS), a small manufacturer struggling to survive global competition and specialization to the point where it is trying to be everything to everyone. Its board of directors is disheartened with the downward spiral of profits, continuing loss of market share, and lackluster performance of "flavor of the month" initiatives. Looking for a way to save the company, the board hires Bill Watts, a lean consultant, as its new executive vice president. But the story just begins here. Knowing that a successful lean journey requires a culture shift that must begin at the top, Bill must rally the support of the board members who are, of course, skeptical as to what lean will bring to the bottom line. But the change in thinking required to make lean implementation successful is only the beginning. "Story of a Lean Journey" will take you through the first three-years of lean application at AMS. But read the story for yourself, it doesn't end there either."--Publisher.

Travel and Representation is a timely volume of essays that explores and re-examines the various convergences between literature, art, photography, television, cinema and travel. The essays do so in a way that appreciates the entanglement of representations and travel at a juncture in theoretical work that recognizes the limits of representation, things that lie outside of representation and the continuing power of representation. The emphasis is on the myriad ways travelers/scholars employ representation in their writing/analyses as they re-think the intersections between travelers, fields of representation, imagination, emotions and corporeal experiences in the past, the present and the future.

Travel and tourism have a long association with the notion of transformation, both in terms of self and social collectives. What is surprising, however, is that this association has, on the whole, remained relatively underexplored and unchallenged, with little in the way of a corpus of academic literature surrounding these themes. Instead, much of the literature to date has focused upon describing and categorising tourism and travel experiences from a supply-side perspective, with travellers themselves defined in terms of their motivations and interests. While the tourism field can lay claim to several significant milestone contributions, there have been few recent attempts at a rigorous re-theorization of the issues arising from the travel/transformation nexus. The opportunity to explore the socio-cultural dimensions of transformation through travel has thus far been missed. Bringing together geographers, sociologists, cultural researchers, philosophers, anthropologists, visual researchers, literary scholars and heritage researchers, this volume explores what it means to transform through travel in a modern, mobile world. In doing so, it draws upon a wide variety of traveller perspectives - including tourists, backpackers, lifestyle travellers, migrants, refugees, nomads, walkers, writers, poets, virtual travellers and cosmetic surgery patients - to unpack a cultural phenomenon that has captured the imagination since the very first works of Western literature.

Have you thought about using Lean in your business or organization, but are not really sure how to implement it? Or perhaps you’re already using Lean, but you need to get up to speed. Lean for Dummies will show you how to do more with less and create an enterprise that embraces change. In plain-English writing, this friendly guide explores the general overview of Lean, how flow and the value stream works, and the best ways to apply Lean to your enterprise. You will understand the philosophy of Lean and adopt it not as a routine, but a way of life. This highly informative book teaches you: The foundation and language of Lean How to map the value stream and using it to your business’s advantage The philosophy of Kaizen Different tools to improve management, customer service, and flow and pull How to “Go Lean” within your business and across the industry Avoid common mistakes in implementation Seek out resources for assistance This simple, continuous improvement approach that minimizes waste and adds customer value is changing organizations of all sizes all over the world. Lean for Dummies will show you to take charge and engage your enterprise in a Lean transformation!

Hitchhikers do not travel a fixed path. They intentionally wander so they can learn and grow along the way. Embarking on the lean journey is similar; there are many roads on which to wander and no single one is right for all. This title concludes with interviews of lean practitioners on the front lines of change at Chrysler, DTE Energy, and Nemak.

Lean – Let’s Get It Right!: How to Build a Culture of Continuous Improvement (978-0-367-42991-1, 340939) Shelving Guide: Business & Management / Lean Management This book addresses the root causes of why a majority of Lean transformations have not met expectations. More importantly, it provides the information needed to turn around the failure mechanisms and transform them into critical success factors. Lean – Let’s Get It Right! delves into the psychology of change and motivation and clarifies the roles and responsibility changes which are required for alignment with Lean principles. While the author includes a review of Lean principles, the majority of the book either provides more depth of understanding of the principles or highlights how misalignment can thwart Lean transformation efforts. What this provides is not only clarity, but it establishes a solid reference point or framework to guide the Lean strategy. The reader will begin to see how the principles are not simply a random set of characteristics or features of Lean, but are actually a set of fundamental beliefs on which all else is based. Though repeated throughout the book that an organization must develop the specifics of their own Lean roadmap, this book concludes with guidance on making it happen. This book, with its primary focus on people, leadership, and principles, and less so on the details of tools and techniques, can be thought of as providing the few critical missing puzzle pieces to enable an effective Lean transformation.