IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Lean Manager, New Business Novel, Animates Lean Management
Using an injection molding facility as its setting, The Lean Manager, published by the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) , shows managers and executives how to go beyond implementing the tools of lean production to creating and sustaining a complete lean management system. Cambridge, Mass., Oct. 29, 2009 -- Lean thinking is the most important business model for competitive success today. Yet companies still struggle to sustain the business gains from their lean implementation efforts. The most important problem for these companies is how they can advance beyond isolated gains from lean tools, such as kaizen, kanban, or 5S, to fundamentally change how they operate, think, and learn. The Lean Manager: A Novel of Lean Transformation, just published by the Lean Enterprise Institute , addresses this critical problem by showing managers and executives how to go beyond short-term gains to lean transformation... “Every isolated effort will recede—or fail—unless companies learn to use the lean process to develop people with the ownership, initiative, and know-how to solve problems, learn, and ultimately coach new individuals in this discipline,” said James Womack, author, lean management authority, and LEI founder. “That’s why this book matters so much.” The business novel takes place in an injection molding facility threatened with closure as it strives to improve performance against competitors supplying the automotive industry in Europe The book follows plant manager Andrew Ward’s struggle to rethink his entire managerial approach under the guidance of no-nonsense executive Phil Jenkinson, who used lean principles to save his company in The Gold Mine, a business novel published by LEI in 2005. The Lean Manager - By Freddy and Michael Ballé - Published Oct. 22, 2009, Lean Enterprise Institute - 471 pages - ISBN: 978-1-934109-25-0 - $25.00 (Softcover) - Media: Chet Marchwinski, cmarchwinski@lean.org, (617) 871-2930 What is Lean? The terms lean, lean manufacturing, lean production, or lean management refer to a complete business system for organizing and managing product development, operations, suppliers, customer relations, and the overall enterprise that requires less capital, material, space, time, or human effort to produce products and services with fewer defects to precise customer desires, compared with traditional modern management. Lean Enterprise Institute The Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc. was founded in 1997 by management expert James P. Womack, Ph.D., as a nonprofit research, education, publishing, and conference company with a mission to advance lean thinking around the world. We teach courses, hold management seminars, write and publish books and workbooks, and organize public and private conferences. We use the surplus revenues from these activities to conduct research projects and to support other lean initiatives such as the Lean Education Academic Network, the Lean Global Network, and the Healthcare Value Leaders Network. Visit LEI at http://www.lean.org for more information.
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