Lean Transformations for Small and Medium Enterprises: Lessons Learned from Italian Businesses summarizes two decades of research, teaching, and practice on lean thinking. Based on quantitative analysis of 100 cases of Lean transformations and 20 in-depth case studies of successfully transformed SMEs, it explains how to undertake lean transformations that lead to operational and financial performance improvement, and uses the Lean Transformation Framework --conceptualized by John Shook at the Lean Enterprise Institute as a practical approach to design and de-risk the transformation process. SMEs leaders wishing to undertake and sustain a lean transformation must: Make a serious and lasting commitment to transform, avoiding the temptation to change course of action; Choose accurately the value streams that require improvement as defined by strategy deployment; Build capabilities to sustain the transformation; Lead by example by going to gemba and creating a culture of respect for people that goes beyond the visible devices and artifacts of Lean tools.

How many IT books have you read that are long on theory and short on practical application? They are interesting, but not very impactful. They provide a framework from which to think and understand, but lack a process from which to act. Addressing this urgent need for the IT community, The Lean IT Field Guide explains how to initiate, execute, and sustain a lean IT transformation.Illuminating a clear path to lean IT, the authors integrate more than two decades of combined experience to provide you with a proven method for creating and sustaining a true lean IT workplace. This field guide not only highlights the organizational techniques of more agile and lean processes, but also the leadership work required to help management adopt these new approaches.Based on proven methods from different industries, including banking, manufacturing, insurance, food and beverage, and logistics, the book details a clear model that covers all the components you need to achieve and sustain a favorable work environment and culture in support of lean IT.Filled with anecdotes and case studies from actual businesses, the book includes pictures, templates, and examples that illustrate the application of the lean methods discussed.

Hospitals and health systems are facing many challenges, including shrinking reimbursements and the need to improve patient safety and quality. A growing number of healthcare organizations are turning to the Lean management system as an alternative to traditional cost cutting and layoffs. "Kaizen," which is translated from Japanese as "good change" or "change for the better," is a core pillar of the Lean strategy for today's best healthcare organizations.Kaizen is a powerful approach for creating a continuously learning and continuously improving organizations. A Kaizen culture leads to everyday actions that improve patient care and create better workplaces, while improving the organization's long-term bottom line. The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen is the perfect introduction to executives and leaders who want to create and support this culture of continuous improvement.The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen is an introduction to kaizen principles and an overview of the leadership behaviors and mindsets required to create a kaizen culture or a culture of continuous improvement. The book is specifically written for busy C-level executives, vice presidents, directors, and managers who need to understand the power of this methodology. The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen shares real and practical examples and stories from leading healthcare organizations, including Franciscan St. Francis Health System, located in Indiana. Franciscan St. Francis employees and physicians have implemented and documented 4,000 Kaizen improvements each of the last three years, resulting in millions of dollars in hard savings and softer benefits for patients and staff. Chapters cover topics such as the need for Kaizen, different types of Kaizen (including Rapid Improvement Events and daily Kaizen), creating a Kaizen culture, practical methods for facilitating Kaiz

While more and more companies are aggressively pursuing Operational Excellence by employing Six Sigma, Lean, and other continuous improvement methods, the concept has yet to be defined in a way that can be easily taught and applied, especially in industries other than manufacturing. This book fills that need.Beyond the Lean Office uses a compelling novel format to illustrate what it takes to create and sustain flow and Operational Excellence in the office. Readers learn as they follow the main character through initial attempts to correct late responses to a primary customer and the evolution to an approach based on Operational Excellence. The story illustrates the day-to-day issues that most organizations face in their pursuit of Operational Excellence.To achieve Operational Excellence, it takes more than just a strong leader with passion and drive. The key ingredient is practical knowledge that can be applied quickly and easily by following a process. This book supplies step-by-step guidance on how to move your office services from point A to point B. The practical insights and guidance presented here create a road map that can be shared with each employee to rapidly move your organization forward. All chapters also include a From the Author section that shares authoritative insights on the topic at hand.After reading this book, you will understand how to design and create self-healing flow that provides reliable, predictable output in the office and operates without the need for management intervention to deliver the services provided by the office. Instead, management focuses on the activities that grow your enterprise.

This is the Participant Guide to support team leaders in implementing an autonomous maintenance team. This is usually sold with Autonomous Maintenance: Shopfloor TPM Implementation. This is for extra copies.

This dictionary, specific to lean business processes, contains over 500 terms used in lean management and manufacturing. Easy to access, accurate, and comprehensive, LeanSpeak will become the desktop tool of choice for lean manufacturing practitioners, from the shop floor to the corner office. Here are some examples of entries in LeanSpeak: gemba: Japanese word of which the literal translation is "the real place." In the manufacturing field, gemba means the shop floor, where the actual product is being made, as contrasted to the office, where support services are provided. lean: shorthand to refer to a lean manufacturing system, of which the Toyota Production System is the foremost example, that has relatively little non-value-adding waste and maximum flow. The term has been used pejoratively to refer to anti-labor practices intending to reduce the number of workers within a company and to strong-arm tactics with suppliers. takt time: the rate at which product must be turned out to satisfy market demand. It is determined by dividing the available production time by the rate of customer demand. For example, if customers demand 240 widgets per day and the factory operates 480 minutes per day, takt time is two minutes. If customers want two new products designed per month, takt time is two weeks. It is a calculated number, not a reflection of your capability. It sets the pace of production to match the rate of customer demand. Also available as an ebook in Microsoft Reader, Adobe Acrobat Reader, or Palm Reader formats.

By simultaneously examining the concerns of design, production, purchasing, finance, and marketing from the very first stages of product planning, concurrent engineering makes doing it right the first time the rule instead of the exception. This should be the first book managers read when they are ready to eliminate waste in the product development process. An introductory handbook, it gives managers 16 clear guidelines for achieving concurrent engineering and contains abundant case studies of Japanese, U.S., and European company success stories. The book also: Defines the concurrent engineering task force as a full-time, multidisciplinary unit of operation. Discusses the necessary interdependence of concurrent engineering, Quality Function Deployment, Total Quality Control, and CAD/CAM. Shows how concurrent engineering can be structured to fit your company and used to gain flexibility and efficiency.

Lean Six Sigma (LSS), Design for Six Sigma (DFSS), and Value Engineering (VE) have a proven track record of success for solving problems and improving efficiency. Depending on the situation, integrating these approaches can provide results that exceed the benefits of each individual approach. Value Engineering Synergies with Lean Six Sigma: Combining Methodologies for Enhanced Results describes how to integrate these dynamic tools to achieve unprecedented improvements and break down the organizational stovepipes that can occur when different offices are assigned responsibility for different problem-solving methods. The book identifies opportunities where readers can integrate these approaches to go beyond what is currently possible with the individual approaches. Explaining the VE methodology, it supplies a high-level discussion of LSS and DFSS. Next, it compares VE with LSS and identifies the different opportunities for synergies that can provide your organization with a competitive edge. Includes detailed LSS-VE cross-reference charts Contains product- and process-oriented VE material designed for LSS black belt training Provides a list of the most commonly used LSS, DFSS, and VE tools The authors describe VE and LSS in a way that is different from, but consistent with, the current literature. To facilitate comparison, the book graphically depicts VE and LSS and maps the two tools into one another to provide you with a clear understanding of the circumstances and types of problems where integrating these techniques will be most effective. The ideas and synergies presented in this book can help industry professionals and those in government accelerate the adoption of efficiencies in their operations.

For many years collectors and dealers alike tended to overlook dolls made of cloth in favor of their china and bisque contemporaries. Fortunately, this situation has changed dramatically in recent years. This book covers the story of cloth dolls from their ancient ancestors through to present day examples. This one easy-to-use volume with over 500 illustrations provides the most comprehensive study guide for this area in doll collecting available today. A value range is also included with each caption for easy reference.

Sustainable product design is more than eco design: it goes beyond 'green' to consider the work environment, community impacts, consumer health, and economic viability, as well as environmental attributes. "Beyond Child's Play" explores the concept of sustainable product design in the context of the global doll-making industry. To initiate this research, the author reviewed eco design parameters and developed criteria for sustainable product design in the doll-making industry. Using this framework, she conducted three case studies of do I making: the American Girl doll produced in China, the Kathe Kruse doll produced in Germany and the Q'ewar Project doll produced in Peru. Themes emerged from this research that have relevance beyond the doll-making industry: the value of making a product with care; designing work for human dignity; intention and vision for sustainability; the implications of materials choices; and, transparency and sustainability. Sustainable product design calls for fundamentally new thinking. By connecting the term 'sustainable' to 'product', we raise expectations for a radically different approach to design, production, and consumption. This framework integrates the eco design principles of detoxification and dematerialization with the principle of 'humanization', to ensure that the work environment where the product is made is safe and healthy and that local communities benefit from production. This approach places increased responsibility on the industrial designer and decision-makers throughout the supply chain, including governments, corporations, and citizens. Sustainable product design can be implemented effectively only when systems are in place that support sustainable production and consumption.

Listed as one of the 30 Best Business Books of 2002 by Executive Book Summaries Proactive Risk Management's unique approach provides a model of risk that is scalable to any size project or program and easily deployable into any product development or project management life cycle. It offers methods for identifying drivers (causes) of risks so you can manage root causes rather than the symptoms of risks. Providing you with an appropriate quantification of the key factors of a risk allows you to prioritize those risks without introducing errors that render the numbers meaningless. This book stands apart from much of the literature on project risk management in its practical, easy-to-use, fact-based approach to managing all of the risks associated with a project. The depth of actual how-to information and techniques provided here is not available anywhere else.

We are in an era of high volatility and uncertain outcomes, driven by accelerating technologies, shortened product cycles, fast-changing information, an increasingly mobile workforce, more demanding customers, complex financial markets, ad-hoc public policies, and many other factors that add layers of uncertainty to all future possibilities. While most believe that good management requires better prediction of the future and better planning, Gill Eapen instead contends that the best way to manage effectively in an uncertain world is through the conscious application of flexibility - an ability to absorb constantly shifting variables and adapt quickly. Flexibility: Flexible Companies for the Uncertain World explores ways in which organizations can systematically enhance their ability to survive and succeed without the guarantees that come with certainty. In these pages, Eapen details: Specific attributes of status-quo organizations that hinder their capacity for flexibility in their three primary components: structure, systems, and strategies A tool and process for diagnosing flexibility-related problems within an organization Specific actions companies can take to improve flexibility, regardless of their size or age A case study of a technology company progressively losing flexibility due to management actions, as well as a detailed project plan for remedial actions Based on the author's years of experience working with a variety of industries, including life sciences, energy, technology, financial services, and manufacturing, and his expertise in decision options, Flexibility offers a holistic alternative approach for managing risk and making the best decisions possible in these especially uncertain times.

Collecting Antique Meerschaum Pipes: Miniature to Majestic Sculpture, 1850-1925 is an illustrated guide to the smoking utensils made of a mineral that has been used since at least the early 1700s and which is, today, still a popular material. In the last decade, a surge in interest in tobacco collectibles has already spawned many books on cigarette lighters, cigar-box labels, and snuff boxes and bottles. This book now comes at a time when antique meerschaums are taking center stage, and collecting them is like buying blue-chip stocks. Ben Rapaport is one of the few internationally recognized authorities on the subject of antique pipes, and in this, his second book published by Schiffer, he has created a powerful and convincing tour de force in word and picture that evidences why so many pipe collectors have a fervent passion for these exceptional works of art. Ranging from very diminutive and expressive cigarette holders to massive sculptured pipes, these instruments were produced by many talented, skilled, and unknown craftsmen working in a cottage industry trade 150 years ago. The caliber of their handiwork and the myriad imaginative meerschaums they produced cannot be duplicated anywhere in the world today. Now, this volume is a permanent record of their unrivaled genius.

Strawberry Shortcake is an ideal, a philosophy of life that may be looked down upon smugly by collectors of supposedly more "sophisticated" dolls. But Strawberry's charm is in her very lack of sophistication, her refusal to be forced into the grown-up shoes of somebody else's idea of fashion and desirability. Here are hundreds of items that spread the wonderful outlook of one of the "berry" sweetest dolls ever into the hearts and homes of little girls through the 1980s. As they grow up, many girls have continued to treasure this memorabilia that celebrates friendship, kindness, and goodwill, and these items are now resurfacing on the collectors' market--arts and crafts, personal care, porcelain, kitchen items, and much more. This conveniently-sized guide with up-to-date pricing information will help you on your search to learn more about the darling philosophy of Strawberry Shortcake!

Here is a great introduction to the remarkable mind of Shigeo Shingo, indisputably one of the great forces in manufacturing. In this soft cover book, Dr. Shingo describes his approach to manufacturing improvements, developed and refined over the course of a brilliant career. He called it the Scientific Thinking Mechanism (STM). The Sayings of Shigeo Shingo leads you through the five stages of STM, with appropriate examples taken from notes Dr. Shingo collected during his consulting trips to American and Japanese plants. It shows how, in many cases, the most brilliant ideas are often so simple they're overlooked. Or they're dismissed because they seem ridiculous: - A Japanese plant, after first rejecting the idea as too silly, finds that unhulled rice is ideal for smoothing the rough surfaces on pressure-formed ebonite switches - Granville-Phillips, in Boulder, Colorado, reduced defects to zero in one process after Dr. Shingo suggested illuminating circuit boards from below to reduce errors involved in the insertion of diodes and resistors The Sayings of Shigeo Shingo is must reading for plant managers and engineers. It formalizes the powerful and creative way of thinking that Shingo himself used time and again to overcome problems that seemed virtually insurmountable.

Based on the author's years of experience working with Toyota's master teachers and with companies in the midst of great change, this book follows the story established in the Shingo Prize-winning book, Andy & Me: Crisis & Transformation on the Lean Journey. In a cool and readable style, Andy & Me and the Hospital: Further Adventures on the Lean Journey follows Tom Pappas's relationship with Andy Saito, a reclusive retired Toyota guru. Tom and Andy are pulled into a major New York City hospital in crisis. Can they translate and apply Toyota's powerful methods and thinking to save the hospital from disaster? Using a compelling novel format, the book demonstrates how to apply Lean thinking in a healthcare setting. It illustrates the situations, characters, and plant politics you will most likely face as you progress through your Lean healthcare journey. As the story unfolds, you will discover the way of thinking and behavioral changes required to implement proven Toyota Production System (TPS) methods, tools, and thinking in healthcare. You will learn: What a Lean transformation in a hospital should look like The overall approach you need to take The leadership and behavioral changes required How to improve processes and better develop and engage people How to build and sustain a Lean management system How to translate and apply Deming's "profound system of knowledge" This book provides clear and simple guidance on what it takes to successfully implement Toyota methods in healthcare settings. It shares helpful insights on how the different elements need to fit together to deliver measurable process improvement results. Just like its bestselling predecessors, this book includes study questions after each chapter to support learning and to facilitate discussion in workshops or classroom settings.

Who can resist the appeal of a cuddly Teddy Bear? Children and adults alike are charmed by the affectionate demeanor of these favored companions. Among the most distinctive of bears are those produced by the company currently operating under the trade name of "Hermann Teddy Original*r" and formerly known as Gebr*der Hermann. Using over 1500 color photos, this comprehensive book provides an in-depth study of the company's products from 1913 to 1998. Author Milton R. Friedberg provides an overview of the Hermann family history and the company's origins, followed by an extensive, detailed survey of the myriad Teddy Bears and stuffed animals. Listings include model numbers, names, descriptions, sizes, logos and arm tags, current values, and more. Also provided is a separate listing of Hermann Bears with unidentified model numbers, information on determining age, an alphabetical, cross-referenced index, and an extensive bibliograpy. An outstanding reference for Teddy Bear enthusiasts of all ages!

The conditions in which leaders apply Hoshin Planning today have changed substantially since the method was established in the 1950's. There is better and more broadly distributed understanding of statistical process improvement principles and practices in today's organizations. Executives seem to rotate in and out of organizations with more frequency. Organizational structures are often more fluid and open. Markets change much faster, employees have greater expectations for stimulation and growth from their work, and technology is central to everything we do. To correctly apply Hoshin Planning, we must consider this modern, more complex environment. Unfortunately, a solid understanding of Hoshin mechanics, techniques, and tools isn't always enough to achieve outstanding performance. This book examines Hoshin Planning a little less through the controllable lens of methodology and more through the ever-shifting and imperfect lens of daily life in organizations. Picking up where many Hoshin "how-to" books leave off, this book presents practical ideas and tools for overcoming the messier obstacles faced by today's executives and planning professionals. You will learn ways to work your strategic planning productively in the face of sometimes tough challenges, such as working with unions, planning during an acquisition, and dealing with measurement fatigue. This book addresses these and other issues with a candid, practical, and compassionate eye. Using real stories and examples, Boisvert shares valuable observations she's made through nearly two decades of consulting with organizations. Inevitably, your organization will experience unplanned events and surprising results that will require modification of what looked like perfectly good plans. A reliable practice of Hoshin stays on its toes. Flexibility, alertness, pragmatism, and thoughtful, hardworking leadership are the themes of this book.

From humble beginnings in the late 1800s, the popularity of cigarettes grew into the twentieth century, until they became far and away the favorite way to enjoy the pleasures of tobacco. To capitalize on the rising demand, new brands were introduced around the world, and every one had a distinctive, attractive pack. Most were executed in rich colors and with graphics designed to catch the eye and capture the imagination of the potential consumer. Today these miniature works of advertising art have attracted a large, international audience of admirers and collectors. This new book presents hundreds of cigarette packs from every corner of the globe, in full color, with vital information about manufacture and price that will be invaluable to the collector. The images themselves represent a fascinating visual history of more than one hundred years of cigarette manufacture.

Featuring over 1000 color photographs, this expansive guide to Cracker Jack covers all manner of company collectibles from advertising copy, books, catalogs, and crates to packages, premiums, photographs, and sales stimulators. The items detailed in this thorough work span the twentieth century from c. 1910 up through 1998. Values for the items shown are provided. Only the toys retrieved directly from Cracker Jack boxes are excluded here, covered by the author in a separate volume. As if this were not enough, other product lines produced by F.W. Rueckheim and The Cracker Jack Company are also displayed and discussed, along with the candy-coated popcorn and peanut confections created by early competitors. Everyone who has ever opened a box of Cracker Jack will find something of interest inside this Cracker Jack of a book!

This brand new volume in the ASM Handbook series has been developed to address the current and rapidly expanding importance of additive manufacturing (AM). ASM Handbook, Volume 24: Additive Manufacturing Processes provides the latest knowledge in materials, processes, and applications of AM, written by the leading experts in research and industry. It begins with an introduction and history of AM, authored by some of the key participants in that history as they trace the evolution of AM. The complete suite of materials and processes for polymers and ceramics are described in detail in the next two divisions. A division on metal AM processes begins with an in-depth description of the production and characterization of metal powders, which has a big effect on the success or failure of metal AM processes. The book describes AM processing of a wide variety of materials, illustrating differences in characteristics of metal alloys produced by AM processes in contrast to conventional processes. Volume 24 also covers direct-write processes, which take advantage of AM processes to combine materials and devices for multifunctional engineering applications.

Despite the growing demand for design strategies to reduce our petroleum use, no one has yet brought together the lessons of the world's leading post-petroleum designers into a single resource. Post-Petroleum Design brings them together for the first time. Readers will be introduced to the most current, innovative, plastic-and petroleum-free products and projects in industrial design, architecture, transportation, electronics, apparel and more. Post-Petroleum Design explores firsthand the client and consumer motivations behind the demand, and shares the case studies, principles, best practices, risks and opportunities of the world's leading post-petroleum design experts who are already meeting that demand. It introduces 40 inspiring individuals from across the globe; people like Eben Bayer, the American innovator whose company, Ecovative, is growing houses from mushrooms; Mohammed Bah Abba, whose Zeer Pot is helping families keep produce fresh in the sweltering Nigerian summer without electricity; and the engineers at Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Studios whose Biome car evolves from genetically engineered DNA. Post-Petroleum Design gives design professionals the information they need to research, evaluate, and select materials, technologies and design strategies that meet the growing demand for sustainable design, plastic-free materials and process energy conservation. Designer profiles, studies, statistics and many colour illustrations all highlight the work-some of the best design work to be found anywhere, and showcased here for the first time.

From G.I. Joe*t to Star Wars*t John Marshall has provided a thorough, informative, and entertaining look at the action figures produced during the 1980s. In over 430 superb color photographs, fans of the pocket-sized G.I. Joes*t, of movie and TV characters, of fantasy figures, He-Man*t, the Thunder Cats*t, super heroes, of those ever-popular quick change artists of the robot world--the Transformers*t, and even pro-wrestling fanatics will find figures here to warm their souls! Price listings are provided for every figure shown and for every known figure produced within a particular product line. Price ranges are provided both for figures that are mint-in-the-box and for those which, while running loose, have retained all of their accessories and lost none of their finish.

An updated 2nd edition of an indispensible handbook designed to help shoppers know what they are looking at and what it is worth. It has been compiled with collectors in mind, with nearly 500 color photos, concise descriptions, and an up-to-date value for each piece. In addition there are helpful tips on building a collection.

A facility-wide improvement initiative is expensive in terms of both time and money. Perhaps the most disappointing thing about them is that they often end up as temporary measures that may produce early results but are unsustainable in the long run. The unseen cost is that after they see such initiatives come and go, employees begin to see them as futile, temporary annoyances rather than the permanent improvements they are meant to be. The Shingo Model (TM) begins with culture informed by operational excellence principles that lead to an understanding of what aligns systems and tools and can set any organization on a path toward enterprise excellence with sustainable continuous improvement. The Shingo Model is not an additional program or another initiative to implement. Instead, it introduces Shingo Guiding Principles on which to anchor current initiatives. Ultimately, the Shingo Model informs a new way of thinking that creates the capability to consistently deliver ideal results to all stakeholders. This is enterprise excellence - the level of excellence achieved by Shingo Prize recipients. In Discover Excellence: An Overview of the Shingo Model and Its Guiding Principles, readers will learn the basics of the Shingo Model, discover the Three Insights of Enterprise Excellence (TM), and explore how the Shingo Guiding Principles inform the kind of ideal behaviors that lead to sustainable results. This book is the introduction to the Shingo Model and prepares the reader for a deeper dive into the Shingo Guiding Principles.