| | |  | Lean Manufacturing | Home » » » » Mr. Lean Buys and Transforms a Manufacturing Company: The True Story of Profitably Growing an Organization with Lean Principles | | | | | | | Product Promotions: | | | | | Description: | | This is the true story of how, armed with only Lean improvement methodologies, a specially trained Toyota Lean expert purchased a business he knew nothing about, applied Lean techniques, and succeeded in doubling sales and increasing profitability, before he finally sold the thriving business. With humility and humor, the author recounts his successes and failures, introduces his key employees and their struggles with change, and provides motivation and simple ideas for all readers looking to improve their businesses. He captures key points highlighted in text boxes and includes illustrative photos and examples of Lean tools at work. This story dispels the fallacy that Lean management does not achieve excellent results in high variation companies and job shops. Toyota’s OSKKK methodology is introduced to understand processes and guide a Lean transformation on the shop floor and in the office. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Greg Lane | | Hardcover:
| 296 pages | | Publisher:
| Productivity Press | | Publication Date:
| December 17, 2009 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 143981516X | | Product Length:
| 9.26 inches | | Product Width:
| 7.34 inches | | Product Height:
| 0.84 inches | | Product Weight:
| 1.1 pounds | | Package Length:
| 9.0 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.1 inches | | Package Height:
| 0.9 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.05 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 2 reviews |
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4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Lean Works in the Job ShopJan 27, 2010
By Samuel D. Beaird
At last a book (a true story no less) on overcoming the challenges of implementing lean in the small job shop business. Mr. Lean Buys and Transforms a Manufacturing Company demonstrates how the step-by-step implementation of lean in a small business can lead to sustained profitable growth, as well as increased profit margins for most of the work already existing in the business. The book is a very insightful case study of the lean transformation of a small machine shop business (a typical job shop) over a four year period. It addresses the many challenges the lean manager faces in implementing lean in the "real world" of a small business - i.e., limited resources, paying off the bank loan, the ups and downs of business, change of ownership, loss of key personnel, expanding into new products, etc. It is a book that neither sugar-coats problems and issues nor instructs how to implement lean in an idealized environment. It addresses real issues and provides realistic, commonsensical, and effective solutions.
Mr. Lean Buys and Transforms a Manufacturing Company is a particularly important read for small company owners and managers in that it is a rare and unique discourse on how best to implement lean in the high-mix, low-volume environment of most small manufacturers and service companies. Where do you start your lean transformation in such businesses? Nearly all practitioners are somewhat faced with selectively applying lean principles and methodologies in the "heat of the battle".
Mr. Lane brings to the table the OSKKK methodology and strategy for transforming a business, which he first learned during his time and training at Toyota. OSKKK is a simple but powerful process for making change in the workplace. OSKKK stands for Observe deeply, then Standardize, followed by three successive stages of Kaizen (Kaizen Flow & Process, Kaizen Equipment, and Kaizen Layout). Throughout his book Mr. Lane demonstrates the effective use of OSKKK for improving both shop floor and administrative processes as he discusses the step-by-step deployment of applicable tools as they are required in the transformation. Accordingly, the book illuminates when and how to implement such basic lean tools as 5S workplace organization, visual management, job-shop planning, the team leader concept, changeover time reduction, lean accounting, skills/cross-training matrix, process mapping, A3 problem-solving, and lean measurements. The book largely demonstrates how to put the lean pieces together to build a Lean Enterprise leaving the detailed explanation of how to develop and implement each individual tool to more specialized books.
Mr. Lane is particularly insightful in stressing and showing the need for the standardization of work, the second step of OSKKK, in a world governed by "tribal knowledge" and individual "gut feel" predominantly found in most job shops around the world. The book provides some simple, common-sense approaches for standardizing processes and illustrates that standardization is critical because without it, there is no baseline for improvement.
Mr. Lane also models the use of the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) principle throughout the book to not only solve problems but as a basis for taking actions and implementing new processes to advance the transformation. Most often lean managers and practitioners fail to (Check) on the results to see whether or not the implementation of solutions and countermeasures are achieving the desired goal. If the goal is reached, care must then be taken to assure the full-scale solution is implemented, documented, and standardized (Act). These are simple comments, but most managers and change agents drop the ball in employing PDCA in their lean transformations to their detriment.
One of the many gems in the book is Mr. Lane's presentation of the "modified" activity-based costing (ABC) system he developed as the basis for the quotation process. In so doing Mr. Lane explains the importance of applying PDCA to the process. He stresses the absolute necessity of providing feedback (Check) as to how quotations compare to actual costs and the need to learn from any gaps in order to improve the accuracy of the process. In addition, Mr. Lane brings lean accounting, specifically activity-based costing, to bare to better allocate direct, indirect, and administrative costs to the specific product based on whatever activities and resources are being consumed. The resulting quotation process should be studied by all make-to-order business principals interested in a quicker and more accurate approach for price quoting new business.
Mr. Lean Buys and Transforms a Manufacturing Company is far more than just a book about lean. While it is chock full of concepts, approaches, and principles for implementing lean to substantially improve the operating and financial performances of small manufacturing businesses, it also includes solid advice, clear thinking, and commonsensical approaches for addressing the many everyday, as well as strategic, issues of managing the various aspects of the small manufacturing business.
From my experience a great many of the lean principles Mr. Lane was able to apply to his small job shop business are directly applicable to medium-sized and even large job shop businesses. The issues are the same, just on a larger scale. Mr. Lane is vigilant in pointing out this truth again and again throughout the book. Therefore, I recommend this as a book to be read and studied by all those serious about implementing lean in the make-to-order and job shop environments. The book affirms that it can profitably be done!
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Very PleasedDec 27, 2010
By Callye Keen
"massder"
This is absolutely a fantastic book. The contents provide a solid example of lean principles functioning in a HMLV/job shop environment. I wish he went into a little more detail as to the implementation of some tools, such as SMED, but many other lean books provide guidance on tools. I read this in a weekend and passed the book to my boss.
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