Chapter Seven. Optimize the Whole

There is an old saying in the systems field, “If you divide a cow in two, you do not get two small cows.” Systems have integrity. While they are composed of elements, they are not defined by their elements but by how all these elements function as a whole.

Joe Stenzel1

1. Joe Stenzel, Lean Accounting: Best Practices for Sustainable Integration (John Wiley & Sons, 2007), Kindle loc. 171–73.

“You get what you measure.” This mantra has helped many organizations embark on metrics-driven management initiatives to improve themselves. Certainly measurement is an important part of Lean thinking, but it is just as critical not to choose the wrong measurements or use them in the wrong way since they can harm the overall ...

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