Customer Reviews

Lean Solutions: How Companies and Customers Can Create Value and Wealth Together

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is one the best for understanding Lean applications in Services.
It is not the techniques that makes this book great. These are known.

The real strengths of this book are the questions it raises, the examples it provides, and its perspective on application and implementation.

The questions raised are from a consumer's point of view - getting problems solved completely, when and where we want them solved, without investing too much of our 'unpaid' time. The book also clearly demonstrates how Lean can result in a 'win win' for producers and consumers.

The examples illustrated are very helpful and insighful. They also cover a wide range - from Help Desks to Retail to Air Travel.

Above all, the language is simple, the explanations down to earth. And yet, very insightful and thought provoking.

Indeed, the book is very well crafted.

These people have figured out a lot about how the world's business really works. They start with a few common senarios:

The new computer you got with the fancy printer, and the two won't talk to each other,
Trying to get your car fixed, when, of course, it won't act up in front of the mechanic - if you even get to talk to the mechanic,
Driving to the big discount store that stocks thousands of items -- expect the one you want,
the business trip -- let's not even talk about the new security rules,
help/support phone lines that neither help or support, nor talk American English.

A lot of effort goes into fixing these problems. Lean Solutions talks instead about fixing the problems so that all this support simply isn't needed. This kind of support is basically waste. It's exactly the same thing as producing a bad product that has to be thrown away.

This book follows in the series these authors have been developing. First was 'The Machine that Changed the World,' a book about the Toyota experience. This was followed by 'Lean Thinking' that generalized the concept. Now 'Lean Solutions' gets more specific with case studies, reports on the experience of companies that have succeeded and more.

It is desirable but not necessary to have already read Womack and Jones's previously published Lean Thinking before reading this volume. In both, their focus is on "five simple principles" which can guide and inform any organization's efforts to achieve "process brilliance" in its product development, supplier management, customer support, and production processes. The principles are:

1. Provide the value actually desired by customers.

2. Identify the value stream for each product or service.

3. Get and keep each step of the value stream in proper alignment.

4. Enable the customer to "pull" rather than "push" maximum value from what you offer.

5. Once the value, value stream, flow, and pull are established, "start over from the beginning in an endless search for perfection, the happy situation of perfect value provided with zero waste."

In this context, I am reminded of Albert Einstein's emphasis on making everything as simple as possible...but no simpler. Lean initiatives should eliminate "fat" but not "muscle." Decision-makers in many organizations confuse rightsizing with downsizing.

In Lean Solutions, Womack and Jones identify what they characterize as "the emerging challenges of consumption" despite the availability of better, cheaper products." And this seems very strange when we stop to consider that satisfying consumption - not just making brilliant products - is the whole point of lean production." In response to challenges such as complicated purchase decisions because "consumers are often drowning in a sea of choices," they explain how to combine truly lean provision with truly lean consumption. In process, Womack and Jones examine dozens of real-world examples of how various organizations have done so. When emerges is a new definition of value for today's consumer who insists that problems are solved completely, conveniently and without any waste of time. Moreover, today's consumer expects to receive exactly what she or he or wants, with value delivered where and when specified, with a substantial reduction of decisions which must be made to solve the given problem or fill the given need.

"Our objective is simple: We aim to teach managers to see all the steps a consumer must perform to research, obtain, install, integrate, maintain, repair, upgrade, and recycle the goods and services needed to solve their problem. We then challenge each step, asking why it is necessary at all and why it often can't be performed properly. Once worthless steps are eliminated, we can talk about flow and pull, heading toward perfection." Womack and Jones insist - and I wholly agree - that lean thinking must not only guide and inform continuous efforts to perfect production of a given product or service but to perfect, also, the provision and consumption of it. To the best of my knowledge, their book is the first to provide the core concepts, strategies, and tactics to accomplish that.

True, Womack and Jones suggest and explain a number of "lean solutions" to all manner of problems but it remains for those who read their book to apply the principles of lean thinking to their own specific circumstances. Obviously, bold action is required and there are perils to take into full account. Any decisions made are, at best, subject to constant refinement and, when necessary, revision and perhaps even replacement as new circumstances develop. Effectively combining and then coordinating consumption and provision streams is indeed a journey rather than a destination.

I was expecting real life, in depth case studies. Instead I got a rather simplistic view of lean. A lot of the content in the book is real common sense. There is no doubt that lean processes are a must for the company. The book tends to spend 3/4 of its time trying to make that statement, with some high level strategic content thrown about.

If you are expecting content such as how companies do VSM, and tactical challenges in doing VSMs you are reading the wrong book. But if you are interested in knowing what is a VSM, and high level overview of how VSMs are done, then this may be the book for you. ***DONT EXPECT TO BE IN A POSITION OF LEADING A LEAN INITIATIVE AFTER READING THIS BOOK***

Good book for getting introduced to lean concepts. Not much for those looking beyond concepts.

John Womack and Daniel Jones made it again; a new breakthrough book in their lean track, from The machine that changed the world (coauthored with Dan Roos), to Lean thinking and then now the Lean Solutions.
In this new book they deeply investigate the area of customer value and give profound advice to rethink the logic under the processes of Lean consumption and Lean Provision. The six major point: 1) solve the customer problem completely, 2) don't waste customer's time, 3) provide exactly what the customer wants, 4) provide it exactly where it's wanted, 5) provide when it's wanted, and finally 6) continually aggredate solutions to reduce customer time and hassle.
Similarly to how the Toyota Production System reduced waste for the producer and improved quality, the six principle above and the examples in the book will provide knowledge to rethink service, reducing waste and improving quality both in the customer and in the provider side.
A must read for everyone involved in Lean, and in any service industry.

In Lean Solution, James Womack takes lean thinking to the next step and looks closely on how lean thinking can and should improve the lives of us, the consumers. The book is written in a similar way as Lean Thinking. He takes a few principles of Lean Consumption at the beginning and goes over them chapter by chapter. He describes actual cases and next to that speculates on the future uses of Lean Consumption. The solutions describe in the book, feel good. I, as a consumer, would like them now immediately, but for most of us in the world, they are not reality, yet. Though, after reading the book, I feel they might be. So the book is very convincing and also eye-opening in many areas.

I would recommend reading this book to everybody. Why then would I rate this book as 4 stars and not 5 stars? Well, to me the book as not as good as Machine and Lean Thinking (after which I immediately got a Toyota and being very happy with it). But it's close and it's good! Highly recommended.

Read Lean Thinking before you read this book. This applies the theories from Lean Thinking to the service industry environment. The beginning of the book is somewhat wordy and boring, but it picks up when it goes into actual case analysis, such as Tesco or auto repair.

Very interesting theories on the next wave of business. Read this with Blue Ocean Strategy.

The authors of "Lean Thinking" move their attention from lean production to "lean provision", particularly focussing on retail and services. The book makes a number of excellent arguments in a beautifully clear and readable style. The provision of goods and services to consumers is definitely the next target in the lean revolution and the authors note some particular example organisations that are achieving lean in the service sector. Tesco comes in for frequent praise.

The book does have a couple of weaknesses. Firstly, the books lacks detail on the metholodogy for achieving lean provision. Only a few vague pages are presented.

Secondly, the book would, in my view, really benefit from the input of retail experts and academics to comment on and improve the ideas that are floated by the authors. As it is, I am left with the feeling that some of these ideas are pie in the sky which would never work in the real economy.

Clearly the aim of this book is to stimulate thought and discussion on the application of lean principles to consumer service. It presents a compulsive argument for change, though no clearly worked through solutions. It moves the lean management focus onto the provision of goods and services to the consumer - where it is much needed - and, as such, is required reading for anyone involved in retail and customer service.

I have often commented on Lean, and mentioned the fact that Lean derives from the Toyota Production System, and thus from a manufacturing background. I was certainly aware that there were books on Lean Six Sigma for Service, but having glanced at a couple, I wasn't convinced that they had really made the transition to a service orientation. Obviously service companies have backroom operations, and obviously there is waste present in service companies, just as there is in manufacturing operations, so Lean must somehow apply, but I wasn't convinced that reading a book on "Lean for Service" provided any important new ideas. I had a student challenge me on this recently and suggested I read Lean Solutions - a book that James Womack and Daniel Jones - the ultimate Lean gurus - had written in 2005. I hadn't realized that Lean Solutions was focused on the service business, but sat down and read it.

Lean Solutions is a great book that anyone in process work, Lean or otherwise, ought to read! There really are exciting ideas that Lean brings to analyzing service industry problems.

Lean includes a number of different techniques. Among the most prominent are defining a value stream and then examining each step in the value stream to determine how long it takes, if its creating value, and whether it relies on push or pull. The techniques are mixed in with a lot of heuristics, often derived from practices at Toyota. Thus, for example, everyone at Toyota is urged to "always go to the gemba." (a Japanese term for the place where the work is actually done). At Toyota, and in almost all books on the Toyota Production System or on Lean, the gemba is understood to be the factory floor where production processes takes place.

What Womack and Jones have done is to imagine a new gemba - the place where the customer lives. (Note that in doing this Womack and Jones have moved beyond Lean as a set of practices derived from the Toyota Production System, and have started to create new Lean techniques for the service industry. (I would suggest that some of what they are doing is what people in the process management tradition have been doing for some time, and one of the reasons people in the process management tradition have thought Lean was limited to manufacturing - but that's a quibble. They key is that they have arrived at the right solution.)

The essence of Lean Solutions is the following statement: "Customers have a gemba, too. It's the path they follow to solve their problems." In other words, if you want to find out about service processes, you go watch what customers do.

Womack and Jones refer to the customer's gemba as consumption, and refer to the service company's process as the provision process. (We prefer to refer to the customer's gemba as the customer process, and the company's process as the business process, but either set of terms will do.)

As Womack and Jones say: "Consumption is a continuing process - a set of actions taken over an extended period - to solve a problem. It involves searching for, obtaining, installing, maintaining, repairing, upgrading, and eventually, disposing of many goods and services.

How does this work in practice? Womack and Jones recommend the following:

*Draw a Consumption Map - a list of the steps in the consumer process. Time each step.
*Determine the value of each step in the consumer process. (The time the consumer wastes.)
*Determine the "perceptual time" of each step. (Is the customer happy or unhappy about waiting.)
Next Womack and Jones turn to the company's provisioning process (the company's gemba), and they repeat the steps:
*Draw a Provision Map - a list of the steps that the company goes through to provide service to a customer. Time each step.
*Determine the value of each step in the provision process. (The time the consumer wastes.)
*Determine the "perceptual time" of each step. (Is the employee happy or unhappy about the step.)

In each case, the authors first create a list of steps and then shift to a diagram of the steps.

The model shows where both the customer and the provider are wasting time. It does not show where the provider is producing any value time. In essence the redesign strategy is to clean up the customer process, eliminating all possible waste in the consumer process, and then to turn to the provisioning process, adjust it to support the improved customer process, and then finally, to eliminate what waste you still can from the provider process.

At this point I have only considered what Womack and Jones discuss in the first 50 pages of their 350 page book. They go on the discuss how they would systematically improve the customer and then the provider processes and then move on to consider lots of other service processes and to provide lots of good advice on how to deal with a variety of service process problems.

The new ideas of Womack and Jones will create some problems that they fail to address in their book. Throughout the book Womack and Jones focus on processes that have a more or less linear flow: Repairing an Car, a Patient Visiting a Healthcare Facility, an Airplane Trip. Roger Burlton and I have found that the more challenging service processes are those that are non-linear. Consider staying at a hotel. You could break the overall process into lots of little processes: Checking In, Going to a Restaurant, Spending the Night in a Room, Attending a Conference Banquet, etc. The reality, however, is that if you want to analyze this problem effectively, you have to conclude that the overall hotel process is a network and that the customer could go from one specific activity (Check In) to another (Restaurant, or Room, or Conference Lunch) in whatever order the customer chooses, and the good hotel will want to support whatever choice the customer makes. Thus, analyzing the network and determining where there is information that you gain from one activity that can improve the customer's experience at the next activity, no matter what path the customer chooses, is another key element in analyzing and designing good service processes. It would have been nice to have Womack and Jones address such a process.

A subtler issue also deserved more attention. In essence, when we look at a service problem, we are looking at two processes: the customers process and the service businesses process. Moreover, they are complementary, such that, in many situations, decreasing waste for the customer must necessarily increase waste for the business. Roger Burlton describes a class in which a student trained in Lean insisted that transportation was "waste," and that, therefore, a pizza company should not deliver its pizzas. Roger tried to explain to the student that much of the value of a pizza, for many of us, consisted in its being delivered, but he didn't convince this particular individual who was determined to eliminate all possible "waste" from the production process. Womack and Jones have solved this problem. The pizza business is a service business. We begin by analyzing the customer's process and try to make it as efficient as possible. For us, as customers, transportation is waste. We don't want to have to travel to pick up the pizza. We want to eliminate the waste by getting the pizza people to deliver our pizza right to our door when we are ready to eat it. As we maximize the value of the customer process, in this case, however, we impose a burden on the pizza company's production process. To eliminate waste in the customer's process, the pizza company needs to accept waste in its own process - it needs to deliver the pizza to the customer. Anyone working with customer processes quickly realizes that the effort to make things easier for the customer must often make things harder (more expensive) for the service provider. It would be nice if Womack and Jones had explored this issue in a bit more detail and suggested some heuristics for dealing with some of these enviable conflicts. This book will challenge the thinking of those Lean practitioners who regard Lean as a set of simple rules - it begins to introduce the complexities of BPM into lean practice.

Most companies today are service companies. Most process technologies were developed to deal with manufacturing processes. We are in the midst of a transition as we all learn more about how to analyze and redesign service processes. This is especially the case when we focus on service processes that interact with the customer, and not just with back office operations at service companies. Womack and Jones have made a major contribution to this newly evolving practice. They have extended Lean to make it much more flexible and powerful, and show how to move towards a true service-oriented Lean Six Sigma approach - by focusing on the customer's gemba.

Every process practitioner should read this book. It is the kind of book that changes your view of the world and forces you to rethink what you know about process work.

As it happens Lean Solutions was published in 2005 and for some reason www.amazon.com is currently offering the book marked down to $7.99. That is an amazing bargain for anyone who wants to read one of the most important books published in the process domain in this decade.

Interesting, but not innovative. By now everyone knows that the customer must be the focus of any activity. The whole book suffers of lack of imagination, it keeps focusing on automotive industry and related services, as if there is nothing else in the world.