Creating a Lean Culture, 3rd Edition

3

Chapter 1

The Missing Link in Lean:

The Management System

Most prescriptions for Lean production are missing a critical ingredient: aLean

management system to sustain it. (By production, I mean any value-adding

industrial, technical-professional, administrative, or healthcare process produc-

ing goods or services.) Lean management practices are like many other aspects

of Lean: easy to grasp, but difficult to execute consistently. This book spells out

the distinction between an organization’s culture and its management system;

provides a framework to see the differences between Lean and batch or conven-

tional cultures; and details the practices ...