Lean Leadership : From Chaos to Carrots to Commitment

The author makes one absolutely great point -- the use of external consultants. The over hundred comapanies that I have seen the insides of, every one of them has made an initial failed attempt to implement Lean without an external consultant as all of these companies felt that it should be simple. Most of the wiser ones, the ones that stayed in business, have then gone on to hire an external consultant to develop a Lean roadmap and follow that roadmap, and only then did they realize that Lean implementation was "deceptively" simple. Being an external consultant myself in my past life [I now work for just a single company] and having worked with many of them, I know that it is almost impossible for an insider to have the vision and the experience of failure that is needed to develop and follow a Lean roadmap for its employer. An outside consultant does not necessarily tell you what to do [most of it you would know yourself], but he or she will tell you what NOT to do and steer you away from making million dollar mistakes, if you would listen. I have noticed that most management simply do not get the simple fact that Lean implentation has very little to do with "furnitue" movement on the factory floor, which any insider with a little bit of industrial engineering knowledge can do,

What a book! If your leadership team lacks passion, commitment, purpose and capability....don't read any further because your organization cannot eat its carrrot everyday! Settle the leadership requirements and move to chapter two and enjoy the elegant simplicity to running LEAN everyday. We are very pleased that the book guided our planning to transform our organization of "individuals working to do a good job" into a true "team" of people & processes that work everday to make the impossible ....possible. With results like 55% less direct labor and 122% increase in sales over the past three years....."EVERYONE IN OUR BUSINESS LOVES TO EAT CARROTS"!