An essential guide to bringing lean to your business and your life The Lean Book of Leanprovides a succinct overview of the concepts of Lean, explains them in everyday terms, and shows how the general principles can be applied in any business or personal situation. Disengaging the concept of Lean from any particular industry or sector, this book brings Lean out of the factory to help you apply it anywhere, anytime. You'll learn the major points and ideas along with practical tips and hints, and find additional insight in the illustrative examples. Lean is all about achieving the desired outcome with the minimum amount of fuss and effort, and this book practises what it preaches — concise enough to be read in a couple of sittings, it nonetheless delivers a wealth of information distilled into the essential bits you need to know.
The Lean Book of Lean discards unnecessary specialisation and minute detail, and gets to the point quickly, so you can get started right away.
- Understand the basic principles of lean
- Recognise lean behaviours that come naturally
- Study examples of lean practices, policies, behaviours, and operations
- Apply lean concepts to both your business and personal life
Lean is about being agile, efficient, responsive, productive, and smart. It applies to any and every aspect of life, from the factory floor to your morning routine. The Lean Book of Lean is the quick, smart guide to employing lean principles every day, so you can start doing more with less.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements xi
Preface xiii
1 Introduction to Lean 1
The definition of Lean 1
Lean – the natural order of living 3
The shopping trip 3
2 The Core Lean Principles 7
Be customer demand-driven 8
Maximise flow 11
Identify and eliminate waste 13
Declare war on variation 16
Organise your people around outcomes you want 19
Equip your people with the right skills 21
Clear and simple measures and controls 22
Defining your “Ideal State” 24
In conclusion 25
3 More About Flow 27
Know your limitations (aka constraints) 28
Take good care of your constraint 31
Feed meeeeeee!!! 31
Keeping going 33
The Whack-a-Mole game of constraints 34
The dish of the day is . . . 35
And our latest offering is . . . 35
Entropy 36
Continuous improvement 36
And the moral of all this . . . 38
Some everyday examples of flow – or the lack of it! 38
Traffic lights vs. roundabouts 39
The DIY enthusiast 41
The airport check-in 44
In conclusion 46
4 Lean Enterprise vs. Lean Manufacturing 47
Planning vs. execution 48
Priorities and decisions 54
Supplier relationships 56
What can we now provide? 57
Getting the best deal 58
Support functions 59
Finance 60
Engineering 61
HR 62
In conclusion 62
5 Organising for Lean 65
Turning tradition upside down 65
Getting ahead in a PCO 70
The football team 73
Theory vs. reality 74
The unfortunate but inevitable consequences 75
In conclusion 76
6 Measuring the Right Stuff and Metrics 79
What’s important? 81
Individual performance vs. team outcomes 85
The balanced scorecard 88
Controls 89
Decision trees 92
In conclusion 98
7 Lean vs. Six Sigma 99
Basis for change 100
Incremental vs. transformational 101
What comes first, Lean or Six Sigma? 103
In conclusion 104
8 The Lean Mindset 107
It’s not just about what you know 107
Lean critical mass 108
Lean leadership 111
Discipline 113
Leadership vs. management 113
Knowing the difference between accountability and responsibility 114
Consistency 114
Engagement 114
Asking the right questions 115
Process thinking 115
Transparency and visibility 116
Certification? 117
5S as a foundation for Lean 119
In conclusion 120
9 The Dreaded Business Case! 121
Business case, benefits case, case for action, best guess, what? 121
The financial justification 122
The kick in the backside 124
The motivational speech 125
Is it worth talking about? 125
Getting management bought in 125
Some business case bear traps 126
The devil’s in the detail 127
Fit for purpose 128
Where are the big fish hiding? 130
The cherry picker 130
In conclusion 131
10 Keys to Success and Sustainability 133
Top reasons for failure 133
How to avoid them 136
Buy-in at all levels 136
Get the fundamentals in place 140
Working on the right stuff 141
Life doesn’t stand still 144
In conclusion 145
11 A Few Key Tools 147
Diagnostic tools 147
5 Whys 148
Value stream mapping 148
Root cause analysis 154
Voice of the Customer 158
Implementation tools 160
Standardisation 160
“IS–IS NOT” thinking 166
Good day vs. bad day 168
Kaizen Events 170
If you don’t have rhythm, you can’t dance! 175
How it works 176
In conclusion 181
12 A Few Words On Technology 183
What’s good, what’s not 184
Closing the gaps 185
In conclusion 190
13 Getting Help 193
We are not alone 193
Partnering with other companies 194
Best practice reference visits 195
Forums, blogs and social media 198
Institutions 199
Don’t try this at home! 200
Reasons to hire and not to hire a consultant 201
Getting the right help 204
In conclusion 207
14 Results, What to Expect and What is Possible 209
Financial benefits 210
Revenue enhancement 210
Cost reduction 211
Cash flow 213
Non-financial benefits 214
Safety 214
Job satisfaction 214
Environment 216
Avoidance of . . . whatever 216
So what’s in it for me? 217
In conclusion 218
15 In Conclusion 221
Appendix – Glossary 223
Afterword 245
Index 247
About the Author :
JOHN A. A. EARLEY is a Founding Partner of SmartChain International LLP (www.smartchainllp.com) who provide consulting support to large companies to transform their supply chains. He has a long international career as both a consultant and in industry where he held a number of senior leadership roles, enabling him to see things from both sides. Lean has been at the forefront of John's thinking from his early days at Rolls Royce Aero Engines through a successful career at PriceWaterhouseCoopers to his role of Global Head of Lean at AstraZeneca PLC.
John has learned what works and what doesn't through over 30 years of practical experience in all walks of business and life. As a result, he is a pragmatist who strongly believes that a simple common sense solution, done well by people who understand it, will always deliver better results than a complex one which may be better in theory, but is more difficult to implement.
