Many people have come to me over the years looking to develop an understanding of Lean fundamentals. There are a number of great books on the subject. Some of my favorites are The Toyota Way
While the videos are not the glossy productions we have become used to expectings. Its just Womak sitting at a desk talking, he presents the concepts in a simple, straightforward and understandable way. Even if your an experience Lean Master I highly recommend watching and hearing the message directly from the man most people credit with the resugence and revival of Lean thinking in America. (Remembering of course that that the Japanese took most of the concepts from us during the post WWII period)
Update: one of my readers provided this link to another collection of Womack Videos on you tube. http://video.yahoo.com/watch/5497097/14459933 these are also excelent but I really like the orginal ones I shared from 2005 they are less formal and in my opinion more engaging.
Thanks for this Andrew – these are conversations that are definitely worth reviewing frequently – the links are great.
Dan Collins
Chief Operating Officer
AddVenture Products
Comment by Dan Collins — July 24, 2009 @ 1:32 pm
Andrew,
Thanks for sharing. The links and presentations are well worth viewing.
Steven Wix
MBA, Lean Six Sigma Manager
Comment by Steven Wix — July 24, 2009 @ 7:31 pm
Andrew, thank you for the links. It is always beneficial to hear more about this deep and ever changing subject. However, there one thing that I have to caution the lean community about. And that is that we put too much emphasis on the researchers and observers than the doers. James Womack wrote some great books, and mostly from the researcher/observer point of view. He himself openly states that he can talk about Lean but he cannot “do it”. As a matter of fact, he is more of a speaker than a consultant. Most of his deeper understanding of lean actually came during the years after he wrote Lean Thinking, and it came from honestly trying to understand what was left out of his writing. It took him ten years to realize that it is the philosophy, not the tools that drive lean. That lean is a different way to manage a business supported by tools, rather than management driving tools. To call him a man of insight is very appropriate. To call him the Lean Master is not. Womack, in his writings, could only talk about what Toyota did and how it operated, not why Toyota did it, or what Toyota had to do (not included in the books) in order to be able to operate like Toyota. GE, GM, Delphi, and other companies that are floundering have been known practitioners of lean, yet they have lacked the understanding of it’s core, foundation, and driving force. Yet, many of their ex-employees sell themselves as Lean experts. The truth is that Lean works against most of what american manufacturing capitalism as controlled by Wall Street believes, values, and measures. Until that core belief is reached and changed, most lean “experts” are more copycats that masters. But I admit, one can always acquire more wisdom by listening to them. And for that, thank you for the links.
Comment by Anthony Mangione — July 24, 2009 @ 9:52 pm
Thanks Anthony, having practiced lean for a few years myself I completely agree. The few books I like on the subject such as Creating a Lean Culture by David Mann and Getting the Right Things Done by Pascal are much more practical for a lean implementation. Perhaps I got a little too catchy in my title in order to draw some attention (I guess I did that
and have people read my post. My point was if you want to understand the basics, and that this is a good source where its explained in straightforward elegance.
Thanks for your feedback.
Andy
http://www.andrewseward.com
Comment by Andrew Seward — July 24, 2009 @ 10:14 pm
Andrew,
Thank you very much for very valuabale insights. I spent most of my initial career years with Japanese companies like Mistsubishi, Denso and presently associated with Delphi. My learning with all of them has been great & all of them preach Lean. But it is always invaluable advantage to hear lean basics from experts like you.
Thanks once again & best regards,
Sandip
India Launch Manager
Manager – Manufacturing Engineering
Delphi, Powertrain
Comment by Sandip Verma — July 25, 2009 @ 10:44 pm