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Creating a Lean Culture: Tools to Sustain Lean Conversions

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One of the chronic problems to successfully implement and sustain a lean initiative is the confusion of management's role--how to be engaged and support beyond funding and verbal endorsement of a lean initiative. Surveys show a 56% success rate with lean. There is a crying need for a guideline for management to be aligned with the floor changes at ALL levels of management. This is key to developing a lean culture. The reason I like Mann's book is that he touches on things that aren't found elsewhere to developing a LEAN MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. Companies typically will hire consultants in hopes of taking them to lean nirvana. But, for most orgs, there are two components that could hurt you: the recalcitrant manager (typically 15-20%) and the rest of the organization that want to be engaged but don't know their role. Both could doom your efforts. Mann's provides an excellent prescription to help you get management realigned with standard roles and specific daily tasks at all levels. Without this, you're dead. I only wish his book was better written to facilitate application. The content is practical but the format isn't--more visuals are needed and a too wordy--but, the goods are definitely there. You won't be disappointed; I still highly recommend this book. If you are looking for some guidelines for conducting a Gemba walk or developing an assessment (don't miss his Appendix) he goes into great detail. The book is divided into two major sections:
What is the Lean Management System?
Ch 1: The Missing Link in Lean
Ch 2: The Lean Management System's Principle Elements
Ch 3: Standard Work for Leaders
Ch 4: Visual Controls
Ch 5: Daily Accountability Process
Learning Lean Management & Production: Supporting Elements
Ch 6: Learning Lean Mgmt: Sensei and Gemba Walks
Ch 7: Leading a Lean Operation
Ch 8: Solving Problems & Improving Processes--Rapidly
Ch 9: People--Predictable Interruption; Source of Ideas
Ch 10: Sustain What you Implement
Appendix, Glossary, References, Index.

I've been doing Lean since 2000 (Six Sigma earlier, 1997) and have been applying general Toyota methods with what I'd consider a very good amount of success. The problem has been, how do you convey the necessity of the Toyota Lean method as a complete "business system" as opposed to JIT and "tools" thinking for busy, batch-thinking individuals? This book fills the gaping void.

Pro:
-Straight forward principles, complete and thorough
-Appear to be true to the Toyota principles as I have seen demonstrated by ex-Toyota executives/leaders turned consultants
-Drives to the heart of lean as a business system, with many elements that I've personally tried or seen work well
-A Shingo Prize winner... impressive
-Avoids excessive Japanese terminology (not an issue for me, but sometimes an issue for others)

Con:
-I think that the power of IT applications is somewhat understated, and pitfalls of using or attempting to use IT-related systems not well described. Would like to see a better description of pitfalls and issues more specifically. Until then, think of IT as you would if you were automating a process... it had better be high volume and well understood/mature.

Bottom Line: I think this a must-have text, and it is excellently written and laid out... plus it's to the point reinforced with numerous short case study examples. I'd recommend pairing this book with "The Toyota Way" (read that first to pave the way for this book). Also consider "The Toyota Way Fieldbook" as the ideal 3rd text to study. A word of caution, these books require a whole new way of thinking and commitment.

This is a fantastic book, one of the small number of "core" lean books that I recommend to people. I've used the book with many healthcare clients who are new to lean. They have loved the book so much that they have read it three times, learning something new each time, and learning something different at each stage of their lean learning journey. The most frequent comment I hear is that the book means one thing to them before they start but it means even more to them after they have "struggled" with a lean environment on their own, revisiting the book and its concepts helps immensely.

Mann's book helps make concrete the vague notion of a "lean culture" and spells out steps leaders can take to start moving in that direction. The book doesn't promise quick fixes, nor should it, but it puts you on the right path to developing your people, your leaders, and your problem solving skills. Kudos to David Mann for a very practical, actionable guide for lean leaders or those of us who strive to become lean leaders.

There are many books on the principles of lean, how to map value streams, 5S and so on. I am not aware of any other books devoted to how managers should behave in the lean environment. This book concentrates on the management "process" and recommends a number of key behaviours for lean leaders:
1) Leader standard work - i.e. standard tasks, notably walking the work area and reviewing performance on the "gemba", as a regular activity;
2) Visual controls - linking cell and value stream visual management with strategy;
3) Daily accountability meetings.

It is fairly straightforward to understand, and it is a short book (less than 200 pages) but it makes its points well and its clear focus highlights the importance of these simple activities and behaviours for managers to reinforce and sustain the lean philosophy. I particularly like the chapter on people and participation. The book could have an easier style but overall I recommend it for all managers moving towards lean. Without managers displaying the lean culture in their actions, the transformation will not hold.

This book fills an essential gap between Liker's Toyota Way and the many books on Lean Tools.

We intentionally didn't begin our lean transformation in our large service orgnization until we had this book because we saw the folly in trying to implement a bunch of lean tools without the necessary management system.

We have visited some Tier 1 Toyota suppliers and Kaizen really means continuous improvement not a succession of week-long projects that many big-time consultants and organizations focus on.

This book is our defacto lean transformation handbook and I am glad to see that it has become a standard reference for at least two MBA programs in the area.

How many times have you found yourself holding repeat kaizen activity for the same problems? Are you losing ground on excellent work that everyone was excited about two months ago, but now that it has become old news, you find people slipping back into their old ways of doing things? This book addresses the issue of Leader Standard Work and how it is the key to sustaining the lean work. This is the book all of your leadership team must read together and discuss.

Creating a Lean Culture by David Mann was recommended to me by a senior manager at Toyota in the USA in response to our conversation about sustaining Lean in the long term, especially for companies just starting their Lean journey. Many early Lean initiatives fall short of their full potential, appear to be lean on the surface but not in substance, or suffer from backsliding in the long term. David Mann, an organizational psychologist by training, takes the reader carefully through the day-to-day and hour-to-hour differences between an lean organization and a traditional batch-and-queue organization, and identifies the old habits and behaviors that must be extinguished before the new system can prosper. With the root cause firmly identified, Mr. Mann then reveals the (3)secrets to long term success missing from almost all lean literature. It's a brilliant guide and top of the Lean Gold Certification reading list recommended by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME), the American Society of Quality (ASQ), and The Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence.

I searched high and low for a book on Lean manufacturing to better understand its application and function. To many authors go into theory and academic explanations or dialogs of Japanese words. This was what I was looking for! I found this book so valuable that I made it required reading for my entire staff.

We have now started on the lean journey.

This book is an excellent start to navigating a lean culture change. David Mann challenges you to change your "management system" in order to change your culture. Once focus is put on the "management system" you can observe, and measure impact which will then translate into cultural shifts. The book is well written and full of concrete examples of actual implementations as well as roadblocks.

Good, hands on guide on implementation of visual management lean manufacturing. Have not found any
other guide this usable and practable