The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road

books:


	• The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road Jamie Flinchbaugh, Andy Carlino Society of Manufacturing Engineers, 2005 - 216 pages average customer review:based on 27 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean - great read

In today's atmosphere to do more, with less, faster, with better quality, this book was a true insight into making an organization leaner.

One of the top five Lean books of all-time

This is an excellent book, and essential reading for Lean leadership. It is also a good starting point for any Lean practitioner or anyone taking on a major change effort. Before diving deep into the problem solving tools and systems of TPS, a study of The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean and the lessons contained within it will give you many tips for your journey. This book is clearly written, and well thought out. Each chapter offers 5 solid things to meditate on and put into practice. The passion and conviction of the authors comes through strongly. What U.S. industry needs are more thinkers and teachers like these.

for more information click here

Book about thinking, not the tools of lean.

Allthough the book is fairly short and a fast read in that I think it makes great job in really explaining the thinking behind lean. There are practically no focus on specific application of tools. And that is not a bad thing. Lean suffers from too tool based approach and I think that this book should be on a reading list before tool specific books (not saying that they don't have their place also).

I needed this twelve months ago...

For the past year we have been focused on the Kaizen approach to process improvement; that is the focus on the outside consulting firm that we chose several years ago. Sustaining change, measurement, and ownership of improvements might actually be regressing. While not giving a roadmap to success, this text affirms the missteps that we are experiencing and it has motivated me to take a broader, less event-focused approach. This would not be a strong text for the professional consultant, but for the leader attempting to assimilate change in a corporate culture and for someone who's been standing on the roadside with their 'lean' thumb out and wondering why no one will stop this provides a good review and simple checklist approach. My outside consultants will regret that I read this book.

for more information click here

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road

I recommend this book for anyone considering Lean. I am buying it for all department directors. It gives the good and the bad, not just the good. I believe it will help people avoid making mistakes if they decide Lean is for them. A good overview of what to expect and gives examples average readers can understand. Highly recommended.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Hitchhikers do not travel a fixed path. They intentionally wander so they can learn and grow along the way. Embarking on the lean journey is similar, there are many roads on which to wander and no single one is right for all. "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road" reveals the most critical lessons learned over the authors' combined 30-plus years of exploring the lean highways. One of the book's lessons from the road is you need to pay attention to where you are and where you are going, just as you do when driving a car. Lean leaders add value by changing things, moving them forward, and producing different results than the day before. To lead, you must go beyond creating a vision. You must develop the vehicle that will deliver it. "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean" is the vehicle that will help you move beyond the tools and take lean to a self-sustaining and continuously improving level. The book's 10 chapters cover lean principles and thinking, lean leadership moves, the roadmap for lean transformation, common pitfalls of lean journeys, building an operating system, lean accounting, lean material management, lean in service organizations, and how individuals can apply lean to improve themselves. The book concludes with interviews of lean practitioners on the front lines of change at Chrysler, Ross Controls, DTE Energy, RSR Corporation, and Nemak.

for more information click here

hot