Lean For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 13

Management Tools

In This Chapter

Understanding strategy

Being there

Leading through management information tools

Lean is a strategic initiative. You undertake Lean because it makes good business and financial sense as a long-term direction for your organization. Yet, Lean requires not just a strategic vision, but a deep, personal daily commitment to improvement; you are changing your culture (see Part II). You need to have the right measurement system. You need to closely watch the short-term and long-term metrics. You need to learn from your experiences — both the successes and the failures. And you need to help everyone be actively involved on a daily basis.

Without the attention of managers and the participation of executives, the changes developed in a Lean implementation are not sustainable. In this chapter, we introduce you to tools that support the development and tracking of the business strategy, tactical initiatives, and the overall performance of the business.

Like other aspects of Lean, managerial tools are visual. Along with the customer and value-stream tools in Chapter 10, the flow and pull tools described in Chapter 11, and the perfection tools in Chapter ...