LEGO is one of the world's best-loved and most familiar brands, adored by generations of children. What is less well known, though, is how close this iconic company came to total collapse in 2003. Brick by Brick is the compelling story of a Danish family-owned company that enjoyed decades of success before its inability to keep in step with a rapidly changing market brought it crashing to earth. It's also the story of an extraordinary recovery. As disaster stared them in the face, the management of LEGO embarked on an audacious and innovative plan to turn their fortunes around, and then painstakingly implemented it. Today, the company is riding high once again, and enjoying results that are the envy of their competitors. Granted unprecedented access to every part of the LEGO Group, David Robertson not only charts each twist in the company's story but explains precisely what went wrong and how it was fixed. His clear-sighted analysis will prove invaluable to all those who want to understand how companies can not only ride the storm of change, but benefit from it.

In today's global business arena, the shop floor now covers the world, and what ties everything together is communication. Author Sam Yankelevitch challenges readers to apply the transformational magic of lean thinking to the waste and confusion that plague global supply chains when cultures collide and meaning gets mangled in even the simplest conversations. Using entertaining real-life stories, Lean Potion #9 demonstrates that communication is a process and illustrates how lean champions like you can adapt familiar lean concepts and tools--such as Five S, PDCA, and the 7 Wastes--to address miscommunications that cause unbudgeted costs, confusion, and frustration. Lean Potion # 9 is a call to action for leaders at all levels to embrace the power of lean to reengineer communication processes. Communication is the next lean frontier. Are you ready to explore it?

Understanding what lean manufacturing is does not take rocket science, nor does it take a conference of ten experts to bear down to the basic concepts. Simply put, lean manufacturing is the achievement of the greatest efficiency and profitability for a company by eliminating the wasteful methods and activities that are commonly present in corporate regimes. At first glance, some firms are intimated with the thought of adopting lean manufacturing because of its fancy sounding name. But, if truth be told, it is actually easier than seems. What you just need to have is the dedication and the discipline to see things through and make change happen.

How America can rebuild its industrial landscape to sustain an innovative economy. America is the world leader in innovation, but many of the innovative ideas that are hatched in American start-ups, labs, and companies end up going abroad to reach commercial scale. Apple, the superstar of innovation, locates its production in China (yet still reaps most of its profits in the United States). When innovation does not find the capital, skills, and expertise it needs to come to market in the United States, what does it mean for economic growth and job creation? Inspired by the MIT Made in America project of the 1980s, Making in America brings experts from across MIT to focus on a critical problem for the country. MIT scientists, engineers, social scientists, and management experts visited more than 250 firms in the United States, Germany, and China. In companies across America-from big defense contractors to small machine shops and new technology start-ups-these experts tried to learn how we can rebuild the industrial landscape to sustain an innovative economy. At each stop, they asked this basic question: "When you have a new idea, how do you get it into the market?" They found gaping holes and missing pieces in the industrial ecosystem. Even in an Internet-connected world, proximity to innovation and users matters for industry. Making in America describes ways to strengthen this connection, including public-private collaborations, new government-initiated manufacturing innovation institutes, and industry/community college projects. If we can learn from these ongoing experiments in linking innovation to production, American manufacturing could have a renaissance.

FULL-COLOR edition This book is about fashion history. Specifically, it highlights Kansas City, Missouri's once world-renowned textile and garment manufacturing industry. It focuses on individuals that designer Ann Brownfield has had acquaintance or first-hand business connections with in her career, and in retirement as co-founder and director of the Historic Kansas City Garment District Museum. This book honors a diverse workforce from native Kansas Citians and minority first- and second-generation Americans-from all backgrounds and countries around the globe-who came to Kansas City for their livelihood. Anyone living, working, or visiting downtown Kansas City, the "Heart of America," might find this book of interest. Architectural historians should discover the built environment of the Garment District notable. Even barbeque enthusiasts will savor knowing that Henry Perry, "the father of Kansas City-style barbecue," got his start in 1908 from a stand in an alley in this historic neighborhood. Prepare yourself to gain an appreciation for an art form and way of life that is no more.