Lean - Let's Get It Right!: How to Build a Culture of Continuous Improvement (978-0-367-42991-1, 340939)

Shelving Guide: Business & Management / Lean Management

This book addresses the root causes of why a majority of Lean transformations have not met expectations. More importantly, it provides the information needed to turn around the failure mechanisms and transform them into critical success factors.

Lean - Let's Get It Right! delves into the psychology of change and motivation and clarifies the roles and responsibility changes which are required for alignment with Lean principles. While the author includes a review of Lean principles, the majority of the book either provides more depth of understanding of the principles or highlights how misalignment can thwart Lean transformation efforts. What this provides is not only clarity, but it establishes a solid reference point or framework to guide the Lean strategy. The reader will begin to see how the principles are not simply a random set of characteristics or features of Lean, but are actually a set of fundamental beliefs on which all else is based.

Though repeated throughout the book that an organization must develop the specifics of their own Lean roadmap, this book concludes with guidance on making it happen. This book, with its primary focus on people, leadership, and principles, and less so on the details of tools and techniques, can be thought of as providing the few critical missing puzzle pieces to enable an effective Lean transformation.

Dave Rizzardo's personal mission can be simply stated as "just trying to make the world a Leaner place." His passion for Lean predates the time when Lean became synonymous with business excellence. After obtaining his Mechanical Engineering degree from the Pennsylvania State University, he worked in industry for 17 years in various positions focusing on quality/productivity improvement and the application of Lean principles. In 1999 Dave joined the University of Maryland's industry outreach program. As Lean Services Manager, his area of concentration was the development of Lean training and implementation services. In 2012 he was co-developer of the Lean Peer Group service and has been facilitating multiple groups since that time. The focus of these groups is to help organizations develop a Lean culture of continuous improvement. In 2014 Dave joined the Maryland World Class Consortia (MWCC) where he has served as Associate Director and Lean Peer Group service provider. He also founded Lean Peer Groups & Consulting LLC. Dave continues facilitating the Lean Peer Groups and working directly with organizations in helping them on their Lean journeys of excellence. Dave can be reached at daver@leanconsult.org.