Customer Reviews

Leading Lean

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The subtitle of this book - "The Making of a Kaizen Event" - is a little misleading. This book is actually about a 5S event and there is no process improvement activity involved. That said the book is a great introduction to what 5S means in practice. Written as a novel it is an easy read and a very good way of building your understanding of 5S before doing it in real life. The book is not as good as the author's previous - "Who's Counting" - mainly because it is focussed on this one event with little bigger picture drama. It is fun though and a great relief from some of the heavy lean texts that are about.

Having led quite a number of Kaizen events reading this book was like sitting in on many of them. One of my people loaned it to me after reading it in some training he was taking, and I was so impressed with it that it is now the subject of our Lean book club. I want the organization to know what to expect when doing Kaizen. And in fact two of them just finished their first week long Blitz, and were able to run things without surprises because of what they learned with this book. I recommend it highly for anyone considering the Lean journey.

This book was written in a story format, making it a very quick and easy read. Not only did this story give step by step instructions on how to do a 5-S, it also addresses the critical need for management support and constancy of purpose when undergoing a lean tranformation. This aspect is often overlooked or not clearly understood. Solomon does a fantastic job shining the spotlight right on the issue. I strongly support that this book be read by anyone who is thinking about "going lean" or is already involved in the journey.

I bought this book for an adult class on management development. The class was overwhelmingly positive about the book.

If you have ever been part of or interested in LEAN activities, Kaizen events and 5S, you will enjoy Jerry Solomon's new book, Leading Lean. It's an enjoyable and easy read and exposes the conflicting viewpoints, goals, baggage and personalities we all bring to the organizations and events we are part of. While reading it I felt like I was back at Boeing being part of Kaizen events again. Read it and you will take away insight and ideas on how to make improvements in your organization too. I highly recommend both it and his first book, Who's Counting. Hank Barr, CPIM, Past President of APICS-Puget Sound Chapter and a current Instructor, APICS Region 10 board of directors, part time instructor in Operations Management at City University.