THE C-LEVEL GUIDE TO SUCCEEDING WITH LEAN "With 30 years of accumulated experience, Art Byrne is one of the rare few people who can speak with authority about the pitfalls of fi nancial measurement systems, the importance of respect for people, the power of Lean in the marketplace, and the leverage from organizing people around value streams. When he writes 'Go to the Gemba and Run Your Kaizen,' we must take heed." -- MASAAKI IMAI, bestselling author of Kaizen and Gemba Kaizen "In this wonderful and important book, Byrne shows us that Lean management, understood and practiced correctly, consistently delivers spectacular results." -- BOB EMILIANI, author, Better Thinking, Better Results, and Professor, Connecticut State University "A compelling picture of how Lean techniques and attitudes enable CEOs and senior executives to create a culture for transforming a company and putting it on a highperformance path." -- JERRY J. JASINOWSKI, former President of the National Association of Manufacturers "Art Byrne provides real-world examples of how he exhibited the wisdom and courage to do the right thing, improving work practices at all levels of the organization to deliver the right results for all stakeholders. Which comes first, the wisdom or the courage? Read The Lean Turnaround to find out." -- JOHN SHOOK, Chairman and CEO, Lean Enterprise Institute "Lean is the closest thing to magic I have experienced in my 40 years in business. I recommend Lean and this book to everyone responsible for the performance of a business, particularly those in private equity like me, where leverage magnifies the importance of cash." -- JOHN CHILDS, founder and CEO, of J. W. Childs Associates L.P. "A must-read for any leader interested in understanding the strategic advantages from focusing on activities that add value to the customer experience." -- GARY S. KAPLAN, MD, Chairman and CEO of the Virginia Mason Health System Lean isn't just for manufacturing anymore . . . Few business leaders in the world have applied Lean strategy as successfully as Art Byrne has--and none has the ability to explain how to do it with such succinctness and clarity. Famous for turning around the wire management company Wiremold, where he rethought every aspect of operations from the customer's standpoint--and got everyone else in the company to do likewise--Byrne has successfully implemented Lean strategies in more than 30 companies in 14 different countries. In The Lean Turnaround, this legendary business leader shares everything he has learned during his remarkable career and shows how anyone can achieve similar results. His primary message is this: Lean strategy isn't just for manufacturing. In fact, Byrne is using this very approach in his present position at a private equity firm. Whatever type of company you run, Lean can be used to improve virtually every aspect of operations, from training and leading employees to accounting and payroll issues. The Lean Turnaround explains all the ins and outs of applying Lean strategy to: Eliminate waste in every value-added operation Deliver consistent value to customers Stimulate growth and add jobs Increase wealth for all your stakeholders Build a company culture of continuous improvement (kaizen) Instead of attempting to get customers to conform to your way of doing things--which is, sadly, what most managers are taught to do--you need to configure your company to be responsive to the customers. This is at the core of Byrne's method--and it always works.

* Our summary is short, simple and pragmatic. It allows you to have the essential ideas of a big book in less than 30 minutes. By reading this summary, you will discover how the lean approach can make your business incredibly efficient. You will also discover that : lean can revolutionize your business in every way; this approach requires your involvement as a business leader; it is based on continuous process improvement, without sacrificing innovation; lean does not cost much to implement, just a little imagination and the participation of your employees; by becoming Lean, you bring more value to your products and customers. Lean strategy can give your company a huge strategic advantage, with no huge investments or painful social plans. However, you must have a clear action plan to overcome the many obstacles that will arise. Art Byrne was one of the first managers to systematically implement lean in the companies he ran. Take advantage of his experience and advice to make your company more efficient and a leader in its market. *Buy now the summary of this book for the modest price of a cup of coffee!

Updated with new information, illustrations, and leadership tools, Leading the Lean Enterprise Transformation, Second Edition describes how the metrics used by Toyota drive every line item in a financial statement in the right direction. Rather than focus on Lean tools and principles, the new edition of this bestselling reference focuses on what may be the least understood and most critical aspect of a Lean transformation: the building of a Lean culture. In addition to new appendices with background information and insightful stories on Lean leadership and implementation, it includes new information on tactical organization practices, strategy deployment, and Lean culture. An inductee to IndustryWeek's Hall of Fame, George Koenigsaecker illustrates successful strategies and valuable lessons learned with case histories of U.S. leaders who have been instrumental in bringing Lean to the forefront. He explains the use of value stream analysis at the leadership level and describes how to structure kaizen events that can improve the value stream. Organized in the chronological sequence that a leader embarking on a Lean journey would experience, the book discusses the methods used by the author during the Hon Company’s successful Lean conversion, which doubled productivity, tripled revenues, and led IndustryWeek to recognize Hon as one of the "World’s 100 Best Managed Firms." The book not only introduces powerful leadership tools—including strategy deployment, transformation value stream analysis, and transformation plan of care—but also arms potential change agents with the soft skills needed to define, develop, and communicate their vision. Detailing the steps required to sustain improvements, it supplies time-tested guidance for effective leadership throughout a Lean transformation in any organization.

Takt time is calculated as the amount of manufacturing time that is available divided by the volume of orders. In the 1930s, the German aviation industry employed Takt for the first time as a production management tool. The idea was widely used within Toyota in the 1950s, and by the late 1960s, it had been adopted by the majority of the Toyota supplier base. Every month, Toyota assesses the takt for a process, with a modifying review occurring every 10 days. Takt time is used to properly balance supply and demand. It gives a lean production system its beating heart.

Lean Thinking was launched in the fall of 1996, just in time for the recession of 1997. It told the story of how American, European, and Japanese firms applied a simple set of principles called 'lean thinking' to survive the recession of 1991 and grow steadily in sales and profits through 1996. Even though the recession of 1997 never happened, companies were starving for information on how to make themselves leaner and more efficient. Now we are dealing with the recession of 2001 and the financial meltdown of 2002. So what happened to the exemplar firms profiled in Lean Thinking? In the new fully revised edition of this bestselling book those pioneering lean thinkers are brought up to date. Authors James Womack and Daniel Jones offer new guidelines for lean thinking firms and bring their groundbreaking practices to a brand new generation of companies that are looking to stay one step ahead of the competition.

With 30 years of driving Lean transformations under his belt—both in-house at Danaher and as the founder of Lean Horizons—Mark C. DeLuzio has a vantage point across a variety of industries. He often hears the challenges Lean leaders face now that they’ve been implementing Lean for a decade or more. They are concerned that they aren’t getting the results they used to, and they don’t know why. Most leaders believe their problems are unique to their company, but Mark sees more commonalities than differences. Flatlined: Why Lean Transformations Fail and What to Do About It draws on the author’s experience as the original pioneer of the most successful Lean business system next to Toyota, as well as his progress over the past 18 years in helping companies replicate what Danaher achieved. Mark DeLuzio knows you need an actionable approach to make rapid shifts, not theory. With this book, Mark DeLuzio gives you: • the reasons why companies are now flatlining with Lean; • five steps to solving this problem, no matter what your industry or corporate culture; • real talk on why your organization is probably mediocre (even if it’s making a lot of money) and how to disrupt it to make it genuinely world class; • the questions you should always be asking at every stage and level of your Lean initiative.

This companion to The Lean Turnaround shows exactly how to use “lean leadership” to eliminate waste while increasing profitability and driving sustainability While many companies have attempted to become Lean, few have captured the full promise of this better way of business. In this compelling sequel to The Lean Turnaround, lean pioneer Art Byrne leads you through a step-by-step transformation in which he tackles all the key challenges that you will deal with. Lean is more than a tactic. Byrne reveals its power as a complete strategy that: *Dramatically boosts profit margins, earnings, and ultimately enterprise value by *Engaging every employee in a culture of continuous improvements where *Every person takes ownership for problem-solving and learning in order to *Deliver more value to the customer by identifying and removing waste—permanently. In The Lean Turnaround Action Guide, Byrne draws from his 30 years of experience leading Lean in more than 30 companies. By setting this book in a company based on his experience, he is able to identify and guide you through the many challenges you will face on your successful Lean turnaround.

Imagine a management philosophy based not upon serving a company's customers, but on serving the company's employees. Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies in India, has put such a philosophy into practice with remarkable results. His "employee first, customer second" mantra has been recognized globally as an example of organizational innovation, and was deemed a "new and radical management philosophy" ripe for the picking in the Western world by Business Week. In this book, Nayar himself describes his blunt refusal to treat the flesh and blood of HCL--its people--as "human resource" or as "intellectual capital" or even as an asset like all its other assets-and how his unique perspective led to an holistic transformation of his organization. By putting employees on top of the organizational pyramid, he argues, your company can fully realize the value created in the interface between customers and employees. This book leads managers and executives through the five core aspects of Nayar's approach, demonstrating how to create a sense of urgency, overhaul incentives and reporting structures, foster transparency in communications and feedback, provide platforms for achievement and personal growth, and finally recognize the potential of every individual in the organization. The "Employee First" philosophy should be the fulcrum of the transformation journey of any organization.

Winner of a Shingo Research and Professional Publication AwardThe new edition of this Shingo Prize-winning bestseller provides critical insights and approaches to make any Lean transformation an ongoing success. It shows you how to implement a sustainable, successful transformation by developing a culture that has your stakeholders throughout the o

From the ill-fated dot-com bubble to unprecedented merger and acquisition activity to scandal, greed, and, ultimately, recession -- we've learned that widespread and difficult change is no longer the exception. By outlining the process organizations have used to achieve transformational goals and by identifying where and how even top performers derail during the change process, Kotter provides a practical resource for leaders and managers charged with making change initiatives work.