| | |  | General Supplies and Equipment | Home » » » Lean Solutions: How Companies and Customers Can Create Value and Wealth Together | | | | | | | Description: | | A massive disconnect exists between consumers and providers today. Consumers have a greater selection of higher quality goods to choose from and can obtain these items from a growing number of sources. Computers, cars, and even big-box retail sites promise to solve our every need. So why aren't consumers any happier? Because everything surrounding the process of obtaining and using all these products causes us frustration and disappointment. Why is it that, when our computers or our cell phones fail to satisfy our needs, virtually every interaction with help lines, support centers, or any organization providing service is marked with wasted time and extra hassle? And who among us hasn't spent countless hours in the waiting room at the doctor's office, or driven away from the mechanic only to have the "fix engine" light go on? In their bestselling business classic Lean Thinking, James Womack and Daniel Jones introduced the world to the principles of lean production -- principles for eliminating waste during production. Now, in Lean Solutions, the authors establish the groundbreaking principles of lean consumption, showing companies how to eliminate inefficiency during consumption. The problem is neither that companies don't care nor that the people trying to fix our broken products are inept. Rather, it's that few companies today see consumption as a process -- a series of linked goods and services, all of which must occur seamlessly for the consumer to be satisfied. Buying a home computer, for example, involves researching, purchasing, integrating, maintaining, upgrading, and, ultimately, replacing it. In this landmark new book, James Womack and Daniel Jones deconstruct this broken producer-consumer model and show businesses how to repair it. Across all industries, companies that apply the principles of lean consumption will learn how to provide the full value consumers desire from products without wasting time or effort -- theirs or the consumers' -- and as a result these companies will be more profitable and competitive. Lean Solutions is full of surprising success stories: Fujitsu, a leading service company for technology, has transformed the way call centers solve problems -- learning how to eliminate the underlying cause of current problems rather than fixing them again and again. An extremely successful car dealership has adopted lean principles to streamline its business, making for dramatically reduced wait time, fewer return trips, and greater satisfaction for customers -- and a far more lucrative enterprise. Lean Solutions will inspire managers to take the first steps toward perfecting their company's process of giving consumers what they really want. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| James P. Womack | | Hardcover:
| 368 pages | | Publisher:
| Free Press | | Publication Date:
| October 04, 2005 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0743277783 | | Product Length:
| 9.36 inches | | Product Width:
| 6.5 inches | | Product Height:
| 1.14 inches | | Product Weight:
| 1.19 pounds | | Package Length:
| 9.2 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.4 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.1 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.15 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 14 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 14 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 22 found the following review helpful:
 Very well craftedDec 13, 2005
By Umesh Vyas
This book is one the best for understanding Lean applications in Services.
It is not the techniques that makes this book great. These are known.
The real strengths of this book are the questions it raises, the examples it provides, and its perspective on application and implementation.
The questions raised are from a consumer's point of view - getting problems solved completely, when and where we want them solved, without investing too much of our 'unpaid' time. The book also clearly demonstrates how Lean can result in a 'win win' for producers and consumers.
The examples illustrated are very helpful and insighful. They also cover a wide range - from Help Desks to Retail to Air Travel.
Above all, the language is simple, the explanations down to earth. And yet, very insightful and thought provoking.
Indeed, the book is very well crafted.
17 of 18 found the following review helpful:
3rd Book in the Series Gets More ExplicitOct 31, 2005
By John Matlock
"Gunny"
These people have figured out a lot about how the world's business really works. They start with a few common senarios:
The new computer you got with the fancy printer, and the two won't talk to each other,
Trying to get your car fixed, when, of course, it won't act up in front of the mechanic - if you even get to talk to the mechanic,
Driving to the big discount store that stocks thousands of items -- expect the one you want,
the business trip -- let's not even talk about the new security rules,
help/support phone lines that neither help or support, nor talk American English.
A lot of effort goes into fixing these problems. Lean Solutions talks instead about fixing the problems so that all this support simply isn't needed. This kind of support is basically waste. It's exactly the same thing as producing a bad product that has to be thrown away.
This book follows in the series these authors have been developing. First was 'The Machine that Changed the World,' a book about the Toyota experience. This was followed by 'Lean Thinking' that generalized the concept. Now 'Lean Solutions' gets more specific with case studies, reports on the experience of companies that have succeeded and more.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Certain to become a business "classic"Nov 14, 2006
By Robert Morris
It is desirable but not necessary to have already read Womack and Jones's previously published Lean Thinking before reading this volume. In both, their focus is on "five simple principles" which can guide and inform any organization's efforts to achieve "process brilliance" in its product development, supplier management, customer support, and production processes. The principles are:
1. Provide the value actually desired by customers.
2. Identify the value stream for each product or service.
3. Get and keep each step of the value stream in proper alignment.
4. Enable the customer to "pull" rather than "push" maximum value from what you offer.
5. Once the value, value stream, flow, and pull are established, "start over from the beginning in an endless search for perfection, the happy situation of perfect value provided with zero waste."
In this context, I am reminded of Albert Einstein's emphasis on making everything as simple as possible...but no simpler. Lean initiatives should eliminate "fat" but not "muscle." Decision-makers in many organizations confuse rightsizing with downsizing.
In Lean Solutions, Womack and Jones identify what they characterize as "the emerging challenges of consumption" despite the availability of better, cheaper products." And this seems very strange when we stop to consider that satisfying consumption - not just making brilliant products - is the whole point of lean production." In response to challenges such as complicated purchase decisions because "consumers are often drowning in a sea of choices," they explain how to combine truly lean provision with truly lean consumption. In process, Womack and Jones examine dozens of real-world examples of how various organizations have done so. When emerges is a new definition of value for today's consumer who insists that problems are solved completely, conveniently and without any waste of time. Moreover, today's consumer expects to receive exactly what she or he or wants, with value delivered where and when specified, with a substantial reduction of decisions which must be made to solve the given problem or fill the given need.
"Our objective is simple: We aim to teach managers to see all the steps a consumer must perform to research, obtain, install, integrate, maintain, repair, upgrade, and recycle the goods and services needed to solve their problem. We then challenge each step, asking why it is necessary at all and why it often can't be performed properly. Once worthless steps are eliminated, we can talk about flow and pull, heading toward perfection." Womack and Jones insist - and I wholly agree - that lean thinking must not only guide and inform continuous efforts to perfect production of a given product or service but to perfect, also, the provision and consumption of it. To the best of my knowledge, their book is the first to provide the core concepts, strategies, and tactics to accomplish that.
True, Womack and Jones suggest and explain a number of "lean solutions" to all manner of problems but it remains for those who read their book to apply the principles of lean thinking to their own specific circumstances. Obviously, bold action is required and there are perils to take into full account. Any decisions made are, at best, subject to constant refinement and, when necessary, revision and perhaps even replacement as new circumstances develop. Effectively combining and then coordinating consumption and provision streams is indeed a journey rather than a destination.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
 I was dissappointedSep 27, 2007
By Aroon Jham
I was expecting real life, in depth case studies. Instead I got a rather simplistic view of lean. A lot of the content in the book is real common sense. There is no doubt that lean processes are a must for the company. The book tends to spend 3/4 of its time trying to make that statement, with some high level strategic content thrown about.
If you are expecting content such as how companies do VSM, and tactical challenges in doing VSMs you are reading the wrong book. But if you are interested in knowing what is a VSM, and high level overview of how VSMs are done, then this may be the book for you. ***DONT EXPECT TO BE IN A POSITION OF LEADING A LEAN INITIATIVE AFTER READING THIS BOOK***
Good book for getting introduced to lean concepts. Not much for those looking beyond concepts.
9 of 11 found the following review helpful:
They got it againNov 03, 2005
By Andrea Pinnola
"Lean Reader"
John Womack and Daniel Jones made it again; a new breakthrough book in their lean track, from The machine that changed the world (coauthored with Dan Roos), to Lean thinking and then now the Lean Solutions.
In this new book they deeply investigate the area of customer value and give profound advice to rethink the logic under the processes of Lean consumption and Lean Provision. The six major point: 1) solve the customer problem completely, 2) don't waste customer's time, 3) provide exactly what the customer wants, 4) provide it exactly where it's wanted, 5) provide when it's wanted, and finally 6) continually aggredate solutions to reduce customer time and hassle.
Similarly to how the Toyota Production System reduced waste for the producer and improved quality, the six principle above and the examples in the book will provide knowledge to rethink service, reducing waste and improving quality both in the customer and in the provider side.
A must read for everyone involved in Lean, and in any service industry.
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