Hitchhikers do not travel a fixed path. They intentionally wander so they can learn and grow along the way. Embarking on the lean journey is similar, there are many roads on which to wander and no single one is right for all. "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road" reveals the most critical lessons learned over the authors' combined 30-plus years of exploring the lean highways. One of the book's lessons from the road is you need to pay attention to where you are and where you are going, just as you do when driving a car. Lean leaders add value by changing things, moving them forward, and producing different results than the day before. To lead, you must go beyond creating a vision. You must develop the vehicle that will deliver it. "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean" is the vehicle that will help you move beyond the tools and take lean to a self-sustaining and continuously improving level. The book's 10 chapters cover lean principles and thinking, lean leadership moves, the roadmap for lean transformation, common pitfalls of lean journeys, building an operating system, lean accounting, lean material management, lean in service organizations, and how individuals can apply lean to improve themselves. The book concludes with interviews of lean practitioners on the front lines of change at Chrysler, Ross Controls, DTE Energy, RSR Corporation, and Nemak.
Jamie Flinchbaugh is co-founder and partner of the Lean Learning Center, bringing successful and varied experiences of lean transformation as both a practitioner and facilitator. Under the leadership of Jamie and the Center's senior managers, the Lean Learning Center has become one of the most recognized and premier lean providers in the world.
Prior to founding the Center, he worked at DTE Energy, parent to Detroit Edison, as a lean thought leader to help transform the operations, leadership and thinking of the utility industry towards a philosophy of lean systems. Earlier in his career, Flinchbaugh was part of the development, training and implementation of the Chrysler Operating System, a widely-benchmarked lean change program. He also has a wide-range of operational experiences, including product development production, maintenance, quality, materials and manufacturing engineering, and has worked at every level from the board room to the shop floor. Flinchbaugh co-authored with Andy Carlino The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road, a best-selling lean book.
Flinchbaugh is also the founder of the Old Dutch Group, LLC, an investment company, and a principal of Cobra Motorcycles. He also serves on the board of directors of S&S Cycle, Inc. and is an investor in Flinchbaugh Engineering, Inc.
In addition to his business activities, he chairs the Board of Advisors to Oakland University's Pawley Institute and is a member of the Lehigh Leadership Council at Lehigh University. In 2004, Flinchbaugh received Lehigh University's prestigious Alumni Award for outstanding service, and in 2006 was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence, and delivered the keynote address for the Honors Convocation.
Flinchbaugh is a graduate fellow of the highly-regarded Leaders for Manufacturing Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he received a Master of Business Administration degree from the Sloan School of Management, and a Master of Science degree in Engineering. He has also received a Master of Science degree in Engineering from the University of Michigan and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Lehigh University.
Flinchbaugh resides in Riegelsville, Penn. with his wife, Jill, and children Emma, Jack and Ben.
