Continuous Improvement

In Leading Lean by Living Lean, Philip Holt details and explains what is probably the most important part of becoming a Lean Leader -- living and practicing what you preach. To do this you must believe in what you’re doing, understand what it means and what you need to do, and do it every day. The author, through his engineering background, has fully embraced the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) model of Deming / Shewhart but has adapted David Bovis’ Believe-Think-Feel-Act (BTFA) model to understand why logic and facts are very often not the principal players in the game of change.

In this book, Holt author describes how you can take both the PDCA and BTFA models into account and has sectioned the book into three prime parts:

1. Head -- How you learn and understand the Lean principles and their application.
2. Hands -- How you practice Lean Leadership daily.
3. Heart -- How you internalize and believe in Lean Leadership.

Through this book, you, the Lean practitioner, whether aspiring or experienced, will have everything that you need to “lead it,” “do it,” and “live it.”

The nature of this book is more “why to” than “how to” – the author knows that he cannot tell you how to lead, do, or live Lean; he can only explain why it is so important and share his knowledge, experiences, failures, and successes. This book isn’t so much a self-help book as a self-reflection book and it can point you in the proper direction, but… the book won’t change you; only you can change you!

Essentially, with this book, the author wants those who think of Lean as a toolkit, who believe that Lean can be project managed, or who argue about Lean versus Six Sigma and misunderstand the fundamental depth of impact that true Lean Leadership has on an organization to be disabused of any or all of those notions. This book is aimed at those leaders who seek to experience the full transformative effects of Lean in their organizations and want to practice it at the principle level of deployment. Holt's aim is to help business leaders enhance who they are by changing what they do and the way that they do it

Lean Culture Change, Reveals Phase 1 Level A of The Transformation Curve

Steven Leuschel, Lean healthcare practitioner pens book, Lean Culture Change Using a Daily Management System. This new book reveals decades of organizational transformation knowledge deeply rooted in the Toyota Production System and Toyota’s culture.

Lean Culture Change is based on the teachings of Rodger B. Lewis, former General Manager of Quality at Toyota during the Georgetown ramp up. Lewis via the Transformation Curve has successfully transformed divisions of General Motors and organizations around the globe for decades. Now, it’s time that healthcare organizations begin to learn a long-term strategic approach to transformation— not just becoming Lean, doing kaizen events, or creating a model cell. In Lean Culture Change, Leuschel describes the initial steps of the Transformation Curve’s Phase 1 Level A with real-life healthcare examples and case studies.

Lean Culture Change is designed to be a training manual for team leaders and Senior Leaders who wish to study and adapt the Transformation Curve. It contains over 200 pages, 100 images/examples, and 6 case studies, an Afterword and Post Script.

Failure is merely a temporary weakening of momentum on the way to sustained success. Learning from past Lean transformation failures will help any organization mitigate against the many challenges of changing culture, management systems, and leadership styles.

Why Lean Transformation Fails is a brief it contains summaries, antcidotes, and reproduced content from organizations such as Virginia Mason Medical Center; New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc; Saturn Corporation; General Motors; Toyota; Toyota's suppliers; the Saskatchewan health System; ThedaCare; and Wiremold.

With a Foreword from Bob Emiliani, PhD and Afterword from Martial Durin the Managing Director, Kaizen Institute China; contributor, editor, and author Steven Leuschel pulls together stories and lessons anyone implementing a lean journey can learn from to overcome barriers of Lean transformation.