In 72 short essays ranging from the provocative to the practical, Gemba Walks author and management expert Jim Womack reflects on the past 30 years of lean, and assesses the current state of lean today. He has visited the gemba at countless companies and keenly observed how people work together to create value around the world. This book brings to life his lean practice of go and see, ask why, and show respect.
Gemba Walks shares his insights on topics ranging from the role of management in sustaining lean, how lean thinking can make the world a better through government and healthcare, the long-term prospects for this fundamental way of creating value, and his hope for continued improvement everywhere to create better work and more value.
Womack explains:
- whatever happened to Toyota and what happens next to lean?
- work, management, and leadership—what is the real work of the lean leader?
- how the short-term gains from lean tools can be translated to enduring change by lean management.
- why companies need fewer heroes and more farmers
- how the real practice of showing respect means helping workers frame and solve their own problems
- how lean got its name 25 years ago—a special essay co-authored with John Krafcik, former president of True Car Inc. and President and CEO of Hyundai Motor America.
- don’t offshore or reshore—leanshore
- how “good” people who work in “bad” processes become as “bad” as the process itself
- how the lean manager has a “restless desire to continually rethink the organization’s problems, probe their root causes, and lead experiments to test the best currently known countermeasures”
By sharing his personal path of discovery, Womack sheds new light on the continued adoption and development of the most important new business system of the past fifty years. His journey will provide courage and inspiration for every lean practitioner today.
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