If Lean is the solution... what is the problem?

Jacob Austad

Książka w jęz. angielskim

331 stron

Okł. miękka

Stan bdb- (dedykacja długopisem na pierwszej stronie)

There is a big difference between doing things right or doing the right things and it all boils down to the view of what is most important, which depends on the situation.

Producing food, conducting surgery, flying an airplane or being in other situations where safety is considered as top priority it might be a good idea to comply to specifications....provided they are correct and up-to-date. Therefore following instructions, delivering targets and complying with rules and regulations is often what is measured.

In other situations like service and administrative environments it might be a better idea to study and understand customer needs and create a system capable of delivering these needs. It will be a big mistake to measure and follow up on compliance to specifications and to set arbitrary targets for quality and costs as this will then be the focus when the focus should be to deliver customer needs. Funny enough doing the right things will increase quality, minimize costs and make customer satisfaction go sky-high.

Copying tools, techniques and methods from one area to the next is often a big mistake because the problems to solve are – of course – quite different. Why is it that so many initiatives fail to deliver a sustainable and better tomorrow? The thesis is that it is because managers fail first to ask the fundamental What problem are we trying to solve? And also forget to work with the people to find the right solution. Defining the problems and delivering the solution is something no leader can do!

The mission of this book is to make everyone study and understand WHY and not jump directly to implement a tool based and often wrong solution. The transformation from manager to leader is hard and probably not for everyone but it should be possible to pay interest in people, ask questions and show respect when asking: If Lean is the solution... what is the problem?