The Lean Enterprise: Tools for Developing Leadership in a Lean Culture

Lean culture should be developed so that the goal to improve a process or business condition on a continuous basis can be achieved. Organizations with a lean culture have reaped many successful experiences in implementing lean, so it is seen as a legitimate methodology for organizations. New employees coming into an organization that has a lean culture will be taught to see, think, and feel from a lean perspective in dealing with problems in their job.

Lean needs to be a cultural mindset for all for an organization to remain successful. The effort to build a lean culture relies on the support and active participation of leaders as the agents of change. Research shows that the success of a lean implementation is around 50% depending on leadership, while the remaining 30% is on finance, 10% on organization and culture, and 10% on skills and expert human resources. In general, leaders play a role in developing subordinates, problem-solving skills, and producing various continuous improvement efforts. In addition, leaders are responsible for encouraging subordinates to continuously use problem-solving tools as part of their efforts to improve their skills and deal with bigger problems.

This book focuses on leadership and the tools required to support a lean initiative. Understanding the basic and valuable tools of lean provides the foundation for leaders in support of their organization initiative. Topics in the book include a description of the eight wastes, organizational level process mapping, lean metrics, and developing a future position.

The author includes a discussion and samples of basic lean tools such as Kanban, standard work, and visual management. The author also describes the tools each leader needs to be successful with in creating a culture of lean thinking, including the leader task board, the process performance board, and process walk.