Sustainable Lean : The Story of a Cultural Transformation

Anybody can start a Lean transformation. That’s easy. What’s hard, is sustaining it. Detailing the process for creating a sustainable Lean transformation, this book addresses how to stay on course over the long term. It describes how top-down metrics evolve into the identification of strategic and tactical opportunities for improvement. The author describes a process that sets boundaries for decisions and teaches a data-driven methodology for making good decisions. He supplies tools for good leadership and teaches how to monitor success.

If you’ve employed consultants and embarked on a Lean transformation only to find your efforts stall after the consultants leave, this book will teach you what you must do to stay the course over the long term. Using a compelling novel format, Sustainable Lean: The Story of a Cultural Transformation illustrates the process of implementing a sustainable Lean transformation.

The book follows Jim, the plant manager of an electronics firm that has already seen its first Lean initiative fail. Jim realizes that if he doesn’t act quickly, his job and the jobs of everyone in the factory might be in jeopardy. Jim meets a Lean consultant who agrees to help him implement and sustain a new transformation. Readers follow along as Jim learns invaluable lessons that help him and his plant see costs plummet, on-time delivery reach nearly 100 percent, and defects drop by close to 80 percent.

Using simple terms and an ongoing example, the book demonstrates how to use top-down metrics to identify strategic and tactical opportunities for improvement. It describes how to conduct Hoshin Kanri (strategic policy deployment). It also describes the relationship between top-down metrics, organizational accountability, the breaking down of "stovepipes," and the concept of "alignment" that comes about as the result of Hoshin Kanri.

Detailing a data-driven methodology to help you set boundaries for effective decision making, this book will inspire manufacturers to achieve world-class production and efficiency standards—one factory, one business at a time.