Business / Process Management

Real Lean

By Bob Emiliani

Summary

In a world where “Lean” has been contorted and is misunderstood by the majority of people, Bob Emiliani takes it back to its roots and explains the purposes, advantages and misinformation surrounding Lean Management.

This small book will profoundly change the way that you think about Lean. It is a MUST READ for everyone as this mindset can be applied everywhere.

Key Take-aways

  • Lean is about “respect for people” as much as it is about “continuous improvement”
  • Lean is not just for car makers or even manufacturing businesses; it is a mindset and a way of thinking that can be applied anywhere in the private or public sector
  • Blindly applying “lean tools” isn’t what lean is all about; understand and apply the lean principles and you will get far better and more sustainable results

The Goal

By Eli Goldratt

Summary

This story, written in the style of a novel, follows the journey of a factory manager who has a few months to make money or risk closure.

A really insightful and easy to read book for anyone who wants to learn how to make manufacturing processes more efficient.

One of the best process management books ever written.

Key Take-aways

  • No one can turn a business around on their own, your team is critical
  • Efficiency needs to be measured on the scale of the whole production line
  • You can make huge savings with little to no investment

Gemba Kaizen

By Masaaki Imai

Summary

This is a detailed book centred around the theories and methods of the Toyota Production System (TPS). It delivers a huge amount of guidance on identifying and improving under-performing processes while also putting focus on the cultural aspects required of any business wishing to truly implement the TPS.

Key Take-aways

  • Where and how to start implementing the TPS
  • How to identify and improve poor processes
  • The culture of Gemba Kaizen is important to ensure improvements continue to happen
  • Quality must be a focus, not just efficiency
  • Mindset of site leaders is important in the roll out of TPS

Good to Great

By Jim Collins

Summary

Jim and his research team studied, compared and contrasted a whole host of companies in the US and came up with definitive traits that differentiate the great ones from the good (and sometimes average) ones.

Key Take-aways

  • Get the right team together before you decide what you are going to do
  • Face up to the facts of your current situation and act accordingly (don’t rest on your laurels)
  • Don’t be afraid to sell loss-making divisions
  • Use your team to decide what you can be the best in the world at and stick to that

The E-Myth

By Michael E.Gerber

Summary

This book is about the impact of putting in processes and hiring the right people to have a successful business. Although this book focusses on small businesses and entrepreneurs to illustrate the lessons, I believe that any business leader, line manager or individual contributor can take value from the lessons in this book.

Processes and systems are key to the success of small (and also large) businesses because they save time, money and improve quality of what you produce (be it service or product based) while allowing you to focus on higher-value tasks.

Key Take-aways

  • Put in processes and hire disciplined people who will follow (and improve upon) the process
  • The aim for any manager is to do themselves out of a job by hiring and training the right people and installing the right processes so their business (or team) can effectively run without them
  • Delegate all tasks that others can do and only do the tasks that only you can do

Delivering Happiness

By Tony Hsieh

Summary

The story of how Tony Hsieh grew a start-up online shoe retailer from Zero to a Billion Dollar company in 10 years.

A real & honest portrayal of the mistakes that were made, as well as the key victories and things that drove the company in the right direction.

Key Take-aways

  • Build the culture you want for your business and take steps to protect it
  • Hire for attitude & teach the skills you want
  • Make sure your actions as a leader are consistent with your culture
  • Make a “culture book” that new starters can read so they understand what your culture is, make it an honest reflection (show the good and the bad)
  • When doing appraisals for your team, make sure you have a whole section on how they have displayed key elements of the culture / principles of the company