Just because a problem is invisible doesn't mean it's not affecting your operation. While communication, distance, and culture are often ignored as real threats to your results, these unnoticed forces are negatively affecting companies that operate internationally. Globalization has amplified a series of obstacles we not have paid enough attention to in our organizations. Ultimately, it's humans that solve problems in coordination with other humans, and this requires excellent communication. Currently, people must coordinate actions and collaborate with teams sitting in geographically separated places. Misunderstandings and lack of clarity, however, cause high, unbudgeted costs. Global Lean: Seeing the New Waste Rooted in Communication, Distance, and Culture highlights the waste created by these interactions and adopts Lean thinking to provide methods, approaches, and real case studies to eliminate these problems at the source. As organizations evolve into global networks, Lean initiatives must now meet new needs. The book follows the story of a CEO and his company that, while successful in their local environment, are heavily impacted by new obstacles as they expand internationally. It illustrates how they adopt Lean methodologies to bring hidden problems to the surface.

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?

Four decades ago, the most progressive companies, particularly those in the manufacturing sector, embraced an aspirational notion stoically named Zero Defects. It was a broad corporate call to action in an era with no Internet, elongated supply chains, multicultural, multilingual, cross-generational work teams, or multiple time zones. It was to ensure product improvement, decrease in work-related accidents, and greater profits earned when less mistakes were made. Today with the kaleidoscope of disruptive forces in business transactions, the speed of commerce, and the ferocious level of competition for consumer loyalty and business survival-the cost of an enterprise's faulty communication can literally make or break a product. The digital age allows consumers to be informed instantaneously, which in turn has accelerated the change in tastes, decreased the life cycle of products and services, and is driving the need for companies to keep up. This book is an introduction to concepts associated with Lean methodologies and how these can be adopted to uncover waste and drive improvements in the interactions between participants in an organization.