Lean thinking is a powerful method that allows organizations to improve the productivity, efficiency and quality of their products or services. Achieving these benefits requires good teamwork, clear communication, intelligent use of resources and a commitment to continuous improvement. This book shows how lean thinking can be applied in practice, highlighting the key challenges and pitfalls. The authors, based at a leading centre for lean enterprise research, begin with an overview of the theory of lean thinking. They then explain the core tools and techniques and show how they can be applied successfully. The detailed implementation of lean thinking is illustrated by several case studies, from a range of industries, in which the authors had unprecedented access to the management teams. With its focus on implementation and practical solutions, this book will appeal to managers at all levels, as well as to business students and researchers in lean thinking.

A new book from the Lean Manufacturing Expert Sebastian Brau, presenting techniques, software, procedures and tricks to get the maximum performance from your Lean project by the use of current available technologies in factories. You will learn how to: 1.- Implement the 'Active Inventory' methodology to prevent your factory from having any stockout ever again. 2.- Use 'lean markers' to detect productivity deviations in your operations more easily. 3.- Merge Kaizen and Pareto to complete your 'continuous improvement' cycles faster and cheaper. 4.- Transform the quality controls in your factory into plant sensors to build a 'digital nervous system'. 5.- Use simple plant records to automatically feed your ERP. 6.- Implement a Material Traceability control that does not jeopardize your operation's productivity with unnecessary costs. 7.- Use SMED video guides to reduce the need to train your staff and the global time for the Lean project to be implemented. 8.- Implement a time control for your staff without offending susceptibilities in the factory. 9.- Know how the new North American Law 'FSMA' can affect your operation if you do not anticipate its effects. A different Lean book written by a Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Software Engineer with more than 20 years' experience in implementing Lean Manufacturing and structured with the different technological viewpoint that his specialized profile allows, in the form of "Practical guide on the correct use of Technology in a Lean Project"

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.

The Flow System is a holistic FLOW based approach to delivering Customer 1st Value. It is built on a foundation of the Toyota Production System (TPS/LEAN) and the new Triple Helix of Flow creating the DNA of Organizations. The Flow System enables business growth through eliminating non-value-added activities, fostering an environment for innovation, enabling the rapid delivery of value, and shortening the time to market. The Flow System provides a re-imagined system for organizations to understand complex problems, embrace distributed leadership, and build high performing teams. The Triple Helix of Flow relates to the interconnected nature of the three helixes: Complexity Thinking Helix - A new form of thinking to aid the understanding of uncertainty and complex adaptive systems. Distributed Leadership Helix - An emergent hybrid leadership model that is capable of making bold and disruptive moves across an industry. Team Science Helix - A multidisciplinary field that studies all things related to teams and small groups in the workplace. The Triple Helix identified the interactions between and among agents (people, machines, events...) that emerge into new patterns, networks, and knowledge to advance an organization's ability to be more innovative, adaptive, resilient, and agile when operating in complex environments. Endorsements: "The Flow System shows how to generate and nurture self-organizing teams that mobilize the full talents of those doing the work to cope with dizzying change and complexity, while also drawing on the contributions of those for whom the work is being done-the customers."-Steve Denning, author of The Age of Agile "Organizations that pull off this triple helix trick of thinking about the complexity of their systems and the environment in which they're operating, distributed leadership to engage the collective intelligence and creativity of the organization, and building teams of teams so the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, have a good chance of keeping up and staying ahead."-Steve Spear, MIT Sloan School senior lecturer, author of The High-Velocity Edge "The Flow System's Triple Helix provides many of the tools and ways of thinking we will need to do that; it is agile without being doctrinaire about Agile."- David Snowden, creator of the Cynefin Framework, Chief Scientific Officer of Cognitive Edge.

This is an honest look at the origins of lean, written in the words of the people who created the system. Through interviews and annotated talks, you will hear first-person accounts of what these innovators and problem-solvers did and why they did it. You¿ll read rare, personal commentaries that explain the interplay of (sometimes opposing) ideas that created a revolution in thinking.

At long last, the deep secrets of Lean management are revealed! This provocative and insightful book clearly explains why Lean management, despite its overwhelming advantages over conventional management, has yet to become ubiquitous in organizations. This book presents the key economic, social, political ideas that must diminish or be eliminated, and historical facts that must be understood and acknowledged in order to experience long-term success with Lean management. It will challenge, annoy, frighten, enlighten, frustrate, educate, and enliven you. Readers will gain a clear picture of how remarkably different Lean leaders' minds are compared to conventional leaders' minds. The differences range from great to small and reflect an overall way of thinking that completely upends the norm - for the customer, and for the better.

The main purpose of this paper is to compare and discuss the evolution of six important management systems: Japanese Total Quality Control (JTQC), Total Quality Management (TQM), Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge, Business Process Reengineering (BPR), Lean Thinking and Six Sigma. Indeed the contribution of this work lies in the concurrent analysis and classification, by the means of a literature review, of the results and critical implementation factors of the six systems. Deming’s Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) has been used to classify the findings from the literature review.