Book Description
At last-a proven system for developing the strategic innovations every company needs to compete and win
As everyone knows, today's unprecedented rate of business change demands new levels of strategic insight and adaptability. Reinventing Strategy is the first practical, systematic guide to creating an adaptive enterprise, showing how companies around the world are using the Strategic Learning approach to consistently out think, out maneuver, and out perform their competition. As Willie Pietersen explains, companies that aspire to long-term success must develop and implement strategy as part of a continuous four-step cycle-Learn, Focus, Align, Execute-and he offers dozens of provocative anecdotes and case studies, illustrating how to implement it at every level of an organization. Written with unusual clarity, frankness, and wit, Reinventing Strategy will change the way managers everywhere approach their greatest and most important challenge: the need to make strategy into a tool for ongoing corporate renewal.
Customer Reviews:
Great book.......2005-02-13
I am an executive coach and a former management consultant, so that business strategy is one of my interests. I have found this book by chance browsing on Amazon.
This is a book I have loved. It is an outstanding synthesis of what is business strategy nowdays. The author wonderfully combines a solid theoretical framework (he is a professor at Columbia University now) with a very practical approach (he has been running a company as CEO beforehand and it definitely shows!). It is very well structured, down to earth, straightforward and still accurate and full of in-depth reflections. It is a rare demonstration (especially in business literature) that a book can be essential and to the point, without boring repetitions (typical in business books). It shows there is a real understanding and mastery of the subject matter.
A serious business book written with both the head and the heart. Thank you Mr Pietersen!
Willie Pietersen gives us great strategy AND great practice.......2002-05-05
Willie Pietersen's Reinventing Strategy contains the basics of strategy, i.e., how to win, how to align the organization behind the chosen strategies, how to be sure that superior insights drive the strategic process. If that alone were his contribution, this book would be a significant contribution to the strategy literature.
But Pietersen goes much further than that. He shows us how, exactly, to develop these strategies, how he himself developed such strategies and what he learned about leadership in the process.
This book is about strategy, implementation and one man's journey as a leader and life-long learner. The result is an immensely human business book. The singular voice of the author comes through with clarity and humility. I know of no other business book that combines theory and practice with such a strongly personal view. Pietersen talks about the value of developing a leadership credo in his book. This book is, in essence, his own credo from a lifetime of leading and learning.
Every Manager Should Read This Book.......2002-04-20
I am VP at a large consumer products company in Ohio and I found this book very insightful in the areas of creating strategy and leadership. I read a lot of business books and most are very slight in what they have to offer -- a few thoughts, old stories or worn out sayings. However, "Reinventing Strategy" is a real how-to-book and goes through running a successful business step-by-step. This book will definitely help my division be more profitable! In fact, I would love to go and take one of Prof. Pietersen's courses at Columbia University.
A survival guide for business.......2002-04-18
Willie Pietersen has managed to pull together what's really important to achieve breakthrough performance. He's done this by telling clearly and convincingly the lessons learned from his years as a chief executive, but explained them from his new role as a Professor of the Practice of Management at the Columbia Business School. I've had the personal pleasure of watching Pietersen in action with business leaders from around the world who have participated in Columbia's Executive Education programs. The overriding comment from these executives is "this guy makes sense and has shown we how to face up to the challenges to my business' survival." Reinventing Strategy: Using Strategic Learning to Create and Sustain Breakthrough Performance is the next best thing to the live program.
If you want to move from Strategy theory to action and have your business survive in the process, read this book.
William M. Klepper, Ph.D.
Academic Director, Executive Education
Columbia Business School
Business strategy as it should be written.......2002-04-17
Here is book that takes a practical look at business strategy and helps the business person to streamline his/her thinking.
Written in Willie Pietersens highly readable style,it has heft as well as humor, theory as well as practical examples. Oh that our Business School text books had been written thus!
I would recommend this book to anyone who sells anything.
Read the introductory chapters,grasp Pietersen's premise then go to any of the rich chapters. Concepts are clearly tagged, each making for a delicious informational meal that forces reflection.
Book Description
Those who have been lucky enough to have Brian Tracy as their personal coach have transformed their lives and careers, increased their incomes, and dramatically improved their levels of success. Now, anyone can have the benefit of his coaching program! And coaches can have the ability to inspire that kind of success.TurboCoach enables individuals to apply Tracy's proven counseling techniques to their own lives, and gives coaches tools to integrate his powerful strategies into their own professional programs. Each chapter begins with a series of self-assessment questions and ends in a set of exercises that can be used to energize an individual's results in that area. Readers will find proven ways to:* Identify their personal strengths * Streamline their work * Get more done in less time * Think and act more strategically * Increase their income dramaticallyBased on more than 20 years of successful work with thousands of people who have learned and applied his coaching techniques to their own lives, TurboCoach shows those in the coaching field how to elicit superior results from their clients, and individuals how to become their own coaches and rapidly improve the quality of their own lives and work.
Customer Reviews:
Awesome book!.......2006-02-23
I've read most of Tracy's books and this one stood out from the rest. Perhaps it was the result of co-author, Campbell Fraser. This book included information not present in Tracy's other 'cookie cutter' books. It was almost like reading from a college textbook except the chapters are much shorter (almost too short). I'd like to see more of Tracys books co-authored. It's almost like they've had a breath of fresh air breathed into them.
If you have never read a book by Brian Tracy, this might not be the best place to start. I'd recommend starting with Maximum Achievement, skipping some of his other, also great books, and then reading this one. It's a great book written by one of the all time great motivators.
Light, good content, formulaic .......2005-06-30
Here's another book on coaching. No, it's not. TurboCoach is more focused on the reader as an individual than it is on the techniques of professionally coaching others. This volume is more of a self-help book.
TurboCoach, a guide to better managing your own life, is organized into 21 short chapters grouped together into three sections. The first seven chapters are designed to help the reader gain clarity about one's own life. The text seems most appropriate to the sole proprietor and independent business owner than to an employee of a larger organization.
The second section of the book, another seven chapters, explores improving one's personal productivity. The third section-yes, another seven chapters-deals with growing your business. The authors' Advanced Coaching and Mentoring Program is promoted after the body of the book-big surprise. The index is helpfully comprehensive.
I felt the book was somewhat condescending. It appears to have been written by formula; may I suggest "manufactured?" Each chapter begins with two questions, with check-off boxes, and a synopsis of the chapter's focus. A few pages of text come next, followed by a seven-question application exercise. Who ever decided that life should be packaged in sevens? Almost every chapter has the same structure. After a while, the reading became annoying. The obvious structure distracted from the content.
There is good material in the chapters and the writing style makes the advice easy to grasp. For the beginner in this field of reading and personal growth, there is good value here. The advanced reader may find this read too simplistic.
Great read simple principals that will work if you do.......2005-05-13
I have read several of Brians books and this is a great one. Brian has a mind that can take the complex and make it simple. He offers details in a simple and easy to understand format that makes the book worth buying. If you try you can use it for self coaching. Great book!
Highly Recommended!.......2005-05-05
If Brian Tracy were your next-door neighbor, he would probably lean over the hedge to advise you on "The Seven Classic Laws of Hedge Trimming" or "The 12 Immutable Principles of Lawn Mowing." Tracy's mind just seems to naturally work that way, absorbing valuable information on the one end and then translating it into insightful factoids on the other. This book, co-authored by Campbell Fraser, distinguishes itself by the way each brief chapter begins and ends. You start by answering one or two pointed questions about your business approach and, after reading Tracy's itemized insights, you feel charged up for the "application exercises" at the end. When Tracy writes a book, you expect every detail to be as tidy and complete as an expensive haircut; this volume does not disappoint. It is vintage Tracy. However, readers are advised this is not a book on how to coach others, but a small package of turbo-charged personal advice. We highly recommend it for anyone on a personal mission to save time, manage a staff and attain greater success.
Book Description
Based on the Juran Institute’s breakthrough method, Juran’s
Six Sigma: Breakthrough and Beyond goes beyond certification or implementation processes discussed in most six sigma texts to prepare an organization's managers -- at all levels -- to deal with the practical day-to-day human, structural, and technological issues which arise when initiating and maintaining a Six Sigma effort.
Juran's
Six Sigma: Breakthrough and Beyond allows you to modify your program to suit your individual requirements. With this book, you get everything you need to improve and maintain Six-Sigma breakthrough performance long after the consultants have packed up and gone home.
Customer Reviews:
Breakthrough among Six Sigma books!.......2003-09-29
Six Sigma is all about breakthrough improvement. Without a breakthrough, achieving Six Sigma performance is impossible. Juran and Juran Institute are the most experienced in achieving and managing performance improvement. The Six Sigma: Breakthrough and Beyond book is unique as it is the only book that covers all aspects of achieving dramatic improvement.
Praveen Gupta
Author of Six Sigma Business Scorecard
and Co-author of Six Sigma Deployment
Customer Reviews:
The author understands our situation and how to fix it.......2000-03-21
I'm an internal consultant at Fiskars, Inc. For the past two years I've been reviewing books about how to implement teams, but everything I read contained the same old traditional ideas that haven't worked for us (i.e. give employees some basic skills training, then ask them to take turns doing various supervisory functions). The Journey To Teams is a completely different approach. The most important point is that most supervisors do too much of the thinking for their subordinates, which causes them to turn off their brains while at work, which in turn frustrates everything management does to create teams. I gave copies of this book to several shop-floor supervisors in our Alabama plant and they came back all excited saying that the author must be sitting around the corner watching us, because the book describes exactly the problems we've had implementing teams at our plant. I've started reading this book for the second time now, and I'm taking lots of notes. If you want to implement teams, you've got to read this book.
Fresh, clear, logical thinking about team implementation.......2000-03-14
This book is easily readable by everyone at every level of the organization. That said, I've read it nine times and each time I learned something new. Don't expect any of the traditional team-building stuff that treats teams as the objective. This book treats teams as a means to real objectives - more capable people, producing better business results. The most important concept in the book is called "the bridge of confidence", a technique for building trust and confidence between supervisors and employees, allowing supervisors to let go of control gradually without losing control.
We bought a copy of this book for each of the 450 employees at Cape Canaveral Group (we maintain the launch pads and related facilities for Atlas, Titan, and Delta rockets). If you are implementing teams, this book is a "must read."
Fresh, clear, logical thinking about team implementation.......2000-03-03
This book is easily readable by everyone at every level of the organization. That said, I've read it nine times and each time I learned something new. Don't expect any of the traditional team-building stuff that treats teams as the objective. This book treats teams as a means to real objectives - more capable people, producing better business results. The most important concept in the book is called "the bridge of confidence", a technique for building trust and confidence between supervisors and employees, allowing supervisors to let go of control gradually, without losing control.
We bought a copy of this book for each of the 450 employees at Cape Canaveral Group (we maintain the launch pads and related facilities for Atlas, Titan, and Delta rockets) and contracted with Everest Consulting Group (Regan's company) to help us implement our teams. If you are implementing teams, this book is a "must read."
An effective (and different) approach to implementing teams.......2000-03-01
This book effectively argues that unless you transform your supervisors from babysitters into coaches, they will negate all the team training you give your employees. It gives very specific coaching techniques that help both employees and supervisors overcome the initial fears of trusting each other. Michael Regan's methods for getting people to develop ideas and take responsibility for implementing them are excellent. His chapters on how to set up and measure teams so they share ownership and accountability for results are critical for anyone who wants to set up a team organization.
I successfully implemented teams at Alcatel before I read this book, but only after four years of dead ends and wrong turns - a result of reading traditional team books and using traditional team consultants. This book would have saved us a couple of years. Subsequently, I used it as our team implementation road map when I was hired as Director of Manufacturing at Sumitomo Electric Lightwave. Within two years we were making record profits, and I was promoted to VP of Manufacturing. I recently accepted a position as Director of Operations at another organization, with responsibility for three plants and a distribution center. The Journey To Teams will be required reading for all my managers.
Book Description
While everyone may not have reached the pinnacle of their creativity potential, Lynne Levesque debunks the myth that creativity belongs to only a select few.
Customer Reviews:
Insightful!.......2005-09-14
In theory and in summary, author Lynne C. Levesque's book sounds wonderful. Today's changing business environment pressures everyone to come up with creative ideas, but not everyone is creative, or so goes common thinking. Levesque argues that everyone is creative, or can be, but that there are different types of creativity. Working from a base in Jungian psychology, and writing somewhat stiffly, Levesque explains eight major types of creativity. She has clearly studied creativity thoroughly. She provides historic examples, quotations and countless tools - including an analysis of creative personality strengths based on the Myers-Brig Type Indicator - to support her thesis that minds work in different ways. Unfortunately, she gives little evidence that people become more creative when they follow her suggestions, and that's the rub. Her specific suggestions sound great, but idealistic: how many organizations have the resources to assemble teams with complementary creativity styles? As a result, we recommend this book to two groups of readers who may have the knowledge to get the most from it: those who welcome the theoretical discussion as well as the practical suggestions, and those who are devoted to fostering creativity.
**A valuable and different perspective **.......2001-11-16
I am an experience MBA, and I was skeptical about another venture into exploring my own creativity.
It turns out Lynne Levesque's book Breakthrough Creativity was definitely a breakthrough in my perceptions. Creativity is not just for artists and advertising. I never really saw my engineering and project management work as "creative," but Levesque's book helped me recognize how confined one's perspective can be. I always sought creativity through sailing or sports. I didn't appreciate how it can play a role in everything I do.
This fresh outlook that we are all creative, with individually different creative talents, was a simple but important revelation. It was interesting to discover how much we limit our own creative endeavors. Levesque's metaphors analyzing creativity are imaginative and instructive, and her recommendations were very practical. Her recommendations are clearly grounded on her own business experience.
Levesque links creativity with resilience and a sense of possibility, a very powerful concept in today's troubled world.
I highly recommend reading this breakthrough book.
Incredible resource!.......2001-10-28
Lynne's model of the 8 Talents of creative expression is a wonderful resource for creative individuals and innovative companies. Using the MBTI type criteria, she clearly describes each type in terms of creative strengths and weaknesses with helpful resolutions for collaboration. This book is a real breakthrough in the field of creativity. I highly recommend it to everyone!
Excellent tool for self growth.......2001-09-15
In Breakthrough Creativity, Levesque opens the reader's eyes to the individual talents that he or she possesses. Learning about your orientation to the world, how you process and analyze infomation, and how, exactly, you are creative is the first step in taking advantage of your innate talents.
Levesque reveals that you DO have creative talents, and she guides you through a series of steps to learn about what those talents are, and how you can implement a game plan to improve upon those talents.
This book is great for anyone who wants to learn how to improve upon themselves. It is also the perfect tool to learn about how to interact with friends, family and co-workers who have different creative talents.
By reading the book, I have become empowered to capitalize upon my strengths. More importantly, I am learning how to overcome barriers and explore how I must adjust my behavior to be fully creative. In addition, I have used it to learn about how well I know people who are close to me, and how to revise my attitude and have a higher level of respect toward people who have very different talents than me.
This book is eye-opening and refreshing. I give it the highest recommendation!
Creative Destruction of Barriers to Creativity.......2001-07-15
What is important to understand at the outset is that Levesque skillfully combines in this book some of the most important ideas developed by Carl Jung in correlation with concepts developed by Katherine Briggs and Isabel Myers for what is now known as "The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®)" personality inventory. According to Levesque, "The more you learn about this instrument and Jung's theory behind it, the more you'll see its applicability to an understanding of creativity." There are so many excellent books on the (sometimes elusive) subject of creativity and this is one of the best. Levesque asserts (and I agree) that almost anyone can think much more creatively. That is to say, almost anyone can develop the skills by which to activate and then nourish certain talents which Levesque rigorously examines in this book, one which is intended "to bridge the gap between your knowledge of yourself as creative and those workplace demands and expectations to produce new and different results. [This book] will help you to travel from the land of confusion to a continent of clarification and the security of knowing how you are creative and what you must do if you are to produce even more creative results.
The basis of the book is the belief that [italics] everyone is creative. Everyone is not alike in his or her creativity because [italics] there is no one best way to be creative. You may not have developed your creativity to the same degree as others, but it's there. Everyone has the potential to be creative at work." Levesque defines creativity as [in italics] "the ability to consistently produce different and valuable results." She devotes a chapter to each of eight dominant personality types: Adventurer, Navigator, Explorer, Visionary, Pilot, Inventor, Harmonizer, and Poet. In Part 3, "Managing Yourself and Others to Enhance Creativity", she shifts her attention first to strategies to achieve effective collaboration and then to a "personal action plan" which her reader must develop inorder to achieve what Maslow characterizes as "self-actualization."
Please allow a brief digression. One of my favorite tactics (gimmicks?) when conducting a brainstorming/problem-solving session with executives was inspired by one of DeBono's books, Six Thinking Hats. I ask participants to wear a Dr. Seuss hat of one of various colors, each of which symbolizes a specific personality with appropriate values. (For example, those who wear a black hat must "remain in character" by being cynical, skeptical, negative, etc. and attack others' comments and suggestions. Every 10-15 minutes, participants exchange hats and must assume a new "personality" appropriate to the color of hat worn. You get the idea.
A similar session could be conducted with each participant designated as being one of the eight "creative talents" discussed by Levesque. Even those who insist they are not -- and can never be -- creative will soon realize the value of taking a hard look at a given subject from variety of different perspectives. They may not generate any dazzling new ideas but, as Levesque insists correctly, they CAN broaden and deepen their awareness of what is possible.
Many advocate thinking "outside the box." According to Levesque, creativity is not just "thinking" out of the box. It's feeling, doing, and being out of the box. She asserts not only that almost anyone can THINK much more creatively but also that anyone can BE much more creative, wherever that may be. One of the most important components of "breakthrough creativity" is the realization that creativity is not just a "thinking" phenomenon. It can also be manifested in being a nurturing team leader, connecting differently with associates, strengthening relationships with clients, etc. Levesque's identification and exploration of this component sets her apart from DeBono, Von Oech, and others whose work I also admire.
Briefly, I want to comment on the word "breakthrough" and state that I share Levesque's high regard for Adams's Conceptual Blockbusting. What Levesque correctly points out is that there are certain barriers (or "blocks") which anyone must break through (or "bust") inorder to think more creatively. Almost all human limits are self-imposed. The first barrier to break through, therefore, is the belief "I'm not creative." (Von Oech has this in mind when, in A Whack on the Side of the Head, he discusses ten "locks" such as "The Right Answer" and "That's Not Logical.") Barriers, blocks, or locks...whatever you wish to call them...all are self-limiting only to the extent they are permitted to be.
Obviously, I think very highly of this book. As noted earlier, Levesque brilliantly integrates several important ideas developed by Carl Jung with concepts developed by Katherine Briggs and Isabel Myers for the "The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®)" personality inventory but she does not stop there. Recall her definition of creativity as [in italics] "the ability to consistently produce different and valuable results." Brooking, Davenport, Fitz-enz, Goleman, and countless others have expanded and enriched our understanding of "human capital." With this book, Levesque makes her own unique and substantial contribution to a collaborative exploration of unfulfilled humanity.
Book Description
This book offers hundreds of practical, easy-to-learn techniques every manager can use to coach employees to become more productive, positive, inspired and effective. Filled with real-world advice and management-changing exercises, this manual shows how to get the most from employees in today's era of downsizing, layoffs, buyouts and mergers. Managers learn how to be more than just a boss and develop the skills and strategies to become more like a coach to their employees.
This invaluable management resource will show managers how to tap into the hidden strengths and talents of employees, to inspire peak performers to even greater levels of productivity, to confront inappropriate behavior, turn problem employees into productive workers, to ask questions that get good answers,-to be a winner and to teach others how to be winners. Gives the skills to become a good coach to lead and inspire people to work as a team and produce winning results.
Customer Reviews:
Enjoyable and encouraging - very worth reading........2006-10-29
I was looking for a book on team building for my department and found this book on accident as I took others off the shelf at the local library. I checked out five books that day and read them all - but this is the only one I renewed. I am on Amazon right now to purchase a copy of it to keep on MY shelf permanently.
Whether a manager, a supervisor or just a co-worker, we are often presented with performance problems in the work place. How to handle them in a way that will bring about change and not degrade morale of the group or the individual?? To me, that is what this book speaks to.
What can we do attain the performance we seek from our team?? We can coach, we can mentor, we can counsel. Which to do when and how? That is what this book presents in a very human and compassionate style. And when performance problems are the topic, we often let frustration, anger and exasperation rule the moment instead of what might FIX the issue - a coach, a mentor or a counselor.
This book will help you approach the team buidling aspect of work with a better attitude and some new ideas.
Redundant, trivial compilation of lists, opinions and generalizations.......2005-07-12
It looked interesting when I saw it on the shelf, but unfortunately you cannot judge a book by its cover. Coaching, mentoring... is disapointing work which neither gives a "how to" set of instructions or provides interesting theoretical reflections on coaching. Mostly it is a book of trivial lists (the 10 values of a successful coach) and vacuous statements ("no coach has ever had the perfect team"; "support is tied to synergy"). And, you will search in vain for any empirical evidence that any of the authors assertions are true. Should have left this one on the shelf.
Average customer rating:
- An Extraordinary Book
- A must for all executives
|
Managerial Breakthrough: The Classic Book on Improving Management Performance
J. M. Juran
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Companies
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Binding: Hardcover
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Out of the Crisis
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ASIN: 0070340374 |
Book Description
Here is a true milestone: a new edition of a management classic published 30 years ago and still embraced around the world. Management guru Dr. Joseph M. Juran-industrial executive, engineer, author, lecturer, and consultant-has received more than 30 honors from a dozen nations for his work. The 30th anniversary edition of Managerial Breakthrough builds on his sound and orderly approach to effective management. It incorporates new material on planning and other recently evolved issues, and expands on Juran's pioneering views of reengineering.
Customer Reviews:
An Extraordinary Book.......2004-09-15
This is a great management book. I recommend it along with "Strategic Organizational Change" by Beitler, "Good to Great" by Collins, and "Execution" by Bossidy & Charan.
A must for all executives.......2000-09-21
By far the best book on management ever written. I bought the original in about 1975 and after 20 years of use it fell apart so I purchased this new version. If only others would read and comprehend this masterpiece - it would save them millions. All work managers do is either in maintaining performance or improving it and Juran provides provides two universal models that can be used by all. The basic principles of control and improvement without all the jargon. They are as true today as they were in 1966. Read it and you will want to keep it by you always.
Book Description
For leading companies in the private sector, benchmarking has become a major catalyst for change and a key tool for gathering information from competitors and process leaders, as well as from within. Benchmarking for Best Practices in the Public Sector is a unique practical guide that shows public officials and administrators at all levels of government how to identify the best practices and implement them in their organizations. Using real case examples from federal, state, and local governments, this book displays how benchmarking methods have been adapted to the unique needs of the public sector and describes the tangible benefits gained by public agencies that have applied these techniques. Offers detailed how-to advice along with checklists, flowcharts, sample forms, a resource directory, and other tools to help managers take action quickly.
Average customer rating:
- Great Book
- Enlightening Book
- Disappointed!
- "Continuous Improvement" of What?
- I've Never Done This Before, But Let Me Tell You How.
|
The Kaizen Blitz: Accelerating Breakthroughs in Productivity and Performance
Anthony C. Laraia ,
Patricia E. Moody , and
Robert W. Hall
Manufacturer: Wiley
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Lean Thinking : Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Revised and Updated
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The Toyota Way Fieldbook
ASIN: 0471246484 |
Book Description
When was the last time your company improved productivity from 20 percent to 60 percent-in only four days? Or cut inventory by 50 percent in the same amount of time? Remarkable results like these were delivered by teams of employees and those who participated in the Association for Manufacturing Excellence Kaizen BlitzSM events. Using the Kaizen Blitz, employees learned how to work as a team to tackle problems from the shop floor and, most importantly, how to solve them quickly.
That's what The Kaizen Blitz can teach you. Simply translated as "continuous improvement," kaizen is a highly focused process aimed at producing incremental performance improvements in narrowly targeted areas. The Kaizen Blitz is a powerful technique that delivers breakthrough improvements throughout an organization-fast. This book will show you how the Kaizen Blitz works and how to bring the extraordinary benefits of this approach to your company. Coauthored by executives of the AME, the book provides a frank discussion of what kaizen will and won't do, the preparation necessary, obstacles to be wary of, and the results you can expect.
The Kaizen Blitz involves everyone across an organization-managers and workers alike. 44t is a low-cost, hands-on process, where all team members are equal and everyone gets their hands dirty. This thorough guide explains how your company can put together your own Kaizen Blitz teams to rapidly develop, test, and refine solutions to problems, leaving a new process in place in just a few days. It outlines how employees can work side by side to implement the best of their ideas for reaching common business goals, such as inventory reduction, capacity expansion, cost reduction, and leveraging capital investments. You will discover how the application of a few simple tools in a straightforward, common-sense approach can bring about real and profound change, provided that management is fully committed and ready to lead the process.
In addition, the authors of this important book:
* Help you determine whether your organization is ready to attempt the Kaizen Blitz
* Outline what you need for an initial Kaizen Blitz project-and what to avoid
* Explain why software package-driven process change has limitations
* Cite results and applications in top U.S. manufacturers.
If you are committed to adopting lean manufacturing; if you want an effective tool to address specific problems in your company; if you need radical change to happen now, The Kaizen Blitz will deliver beyond your highest expectations.
The Association for Manufacturing Excellence has pioneered a powerful version of kaizen-a process for achieving continuous improvement in an organization-called the Kaizen Blitz.SM This book will show you how to use this remarkable tool to deliver breakthrough improvements in your company in areas like productivity, inventory reduction, capacity expansion, and much more. You'll learn how to assemble a kaizen team that will determine solutions to your company's specific problems by designing new systems, correcting mistakes quickly and moving on, running and refining procedures, and ultimately demonstrating a new process in place in just a few days. You'll also read about top U.S. manufacturers who have successfully used the Kaizen Blitz to bring about radical, positive change. If your company is ready to achieve dramatic results by implementing new processes-not just proposed, but in place and functioning-in a matter of days, the Kaizen Blitz is the way to make it happen.
Customer Reviews:
Great Book.......2007-09-16
The Kaizen Blitz is a excellent book. It is helpful for studying about lean manufacturing. It is a excellent guide to do improvements in the factories.
Enlightening Book.......2006-05-26
This is a book that is useful to those people who may wish to implement Kaizen Blitzes. The Kaizen Blitzes are a series of educational initiatives developed by the Association for Manufacturing Excellence. The book explains how organizations can accelerate the process of achieving rapid breakthrough success in productivity and performance. This can be achieved with good leadership and support at the top and a motivated workforce working to achieve clear targets.
Although the book was written by authors without hands on experienced on running Kaizen Events, nevertheless, they carried out extensive research on companies that successfully implemented the concept, that the information they provide is very enlightening and useful.
The book provide a good overview on the Kaizen blitz and explains how a company can eliminate waste, focus on valuable activities, create an efficient, lean operation whilst explaining how this can be quickly achieved. The book is written in a simple and easy-to-follow style that should make it readable to specialists and non-specialists alike.
Disappointed!.......2001-12-04
Did NOT help us run Kaizen events. An overview and story.
Author has never implemented Kaizen, only told about others' successes.
Not a "how to do it" book.
"Continuous Improvement" of What?.......2001-10-27
As you probably know already, the word "kaizen" is a Japanese term meaning "to make better" with the implication that such effort should be continuous, indeed intensive and unrelenting. Since 1994, the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) has developed a series of educational initiatives known as the "Kaizen Blitz." In the Introduction to this volume, Jon Brodeur observes: "We think non-consultant-driven events -- training and on-the-floor work by the experts, the hands-on employees who have experienced the power of the Kaizen Blitz -- will continue to be a welcome addition to any organization's arsenal of improvement approaches. Small- and medium-sized companies can do it as well as larger ones and they may have an advantage if operations are small enough in scope to get their arms around." However, positive and significant results can only be achieved with an appropriate combination of leadership at its highest level, acceptance (indeed enthusiasm) throughout all other levels, and tenacious involvement about attaining 20 percent to 50 percent improvement (or greater) in performance in a short time and in narrowly targeted areas. The effective Kaizen process must be top-down, initiated and sustained by teamwork, and focused entirely on doing "whatever needs to be done" ASAP. The authors of this book explain both how and why.
The material is organized within 11 chapters whose titles correctly suggest the nature and extent of coverage: The Power of AME's Kaizen Blitz: Learning by Doing; The Roots of Kaizen; Improvement Strategy: Implementing the Big Picture; Getting Ready for Kaizen; Time Prints and Takt Times; How to Tell If There Is Improvement: Adding Value, Subtracting Waste: Uncovering the Flows: Establishing and Clarifying Process Flows; Forms, Charts, and Measurements; Sustaining the Gain: Lean Leadership; and finally, Never Look Back. Throughout the book, the authors reiterate the imperative that Kaizen Blitz initiatives must be sharply focused, task oriented, results driven, measurable and -- meanwhile -- FAST. Hence the relevance of the concept of "blitz," which gained worldwide prominence prior to and then during World War II when Fascist and then Allied forces attacked enemy positions with unprecedented velocity. As the AME Kaizen Blitz has demonstrated so convincingly, the same strategy (with obvious modifications) can effectively be implemented within any organization, regardless of size or nature.
Obviously I think highly of this book because it offers a sensitive, flexible, thoughtful and rigorous program to achieve what the subtitle correctly describes as "accelerating breakthroughs in productivity and performance." If these brief comments suggest that this is a program your organization needs, I strongly recommend that all of its decision-makers read it. Then, schedule an offsite meeting during which the book becomes the agenda for collaborative efforts to formulate and implement a Kaizen Blitz appropriate to your organization's specific needs and interests. If there is a need for additional resources, I strongly suggest Breyfogle's two books as well as one written by Pande and his co-authors.
I've Never Done This Before, But Let Me Tell You How........2001-10-12
Three contributers, three more "experts" trying to tell us how to do something that they have never done themselves.
A lot of references and notable people and companies are mentioned, but where is the real hands-on "How to do it?"
This book is a story book and should be classified as FICTION.
This trio are writers, not "Lean Manufacturing" implementers.
Book Description
Lean Strategies for Product Development highlights problems that are common to companies in terms of developing products cheaply and efficiently. The result is a book based on proven strategies and methodologies that will enable a company to significantly reduce the time necessary to develop new products and dramatically reduce product cost. Companies that have implemented the concepts presented in Lean Strategies for Product Development have achieved dramatic results. In some cases, cycle time reduction by as much as 70% has been achieved. The concepts are presented in the context of a story centered on two key characters - a customer and his supplier. Through the dialog shared between the characters, the concepts are presented and a new business opportunity emerges.
Customer Reviews:
A good book about Lean Strategies.......2005-11-13
"Lean Strategies for Product Development" is a small, beautifully printed soft-cover paperback that you could pick up and read while waiting for your flight in the airport and may be finish by the time you reach your destination after about an hour. However, you may need to reread it a couple of times to really appreciate and fully absorb the important concepts presented therein. In 11 chapters spread over just 62 pages, Cliff succeeds in presenting lucidly some very important concepts and methodologies for faster and better product development. These are aptly called Lean Strategies since they tend to make the organization lean by reducing flab and wastage of resources. An analogy that comes to mind is how a small torpedo boat is much more nimble when compared to a bulky aircraft carrier, or how a lean and fit man can outrun and outmanouver a flabby, overweight opponent in boxing. The need for faster, leaner product development teams that can come up with smart and cost-effective designs to withstand intense competition is very well brought out.
The book resembles the well-known business novel "The Goal" in style, though the story line is not as strong as that book. The tone is quite conversational and most of the time, the text is easy to follow. The examples are quite meaningful and with only a little rereading, it is possible for the strategy to be understood. The contents and a sample chapter of the book can be accessed by clicking on the following link:
[...]
In addition to the 11 chapters, the book has appendices including a Glossary, Product Development Approach Summary, Examples of Waste, Value Stream Map Examples, Common Product Development Problems, Product Development Maturity Path, References and at the very end, a very useful index.
I especially liked the chapters on Modular design, Platform Design and The Lean and Six Sigma Connection. I also liked Cliff's emphasis on the imperative need to capture knowledge (Knowledge Management if you prefer). I feel many of the existing organizations, even large ones, neglect this area. As Ken Hawkins, the Project Engineer of Donetics in the book rightly remarks, knowledge goes into a black-hole, never to come out again!
As an editor, I found a few places where I felt that the text could have been edited better. But in general, there is no difficulty in understanding the message.
All in all, I have no hesitation in recommending this book to individuals, organizations and libraries.
S.V.Swamy
About the reviewer: I am a Physicist and a metallurgist by education and has spent almost all of 37 years in Quality Control, Quality Assurance with special emphasis on various aspects of material testing. My other interests include training and general management. Presently I am actively involved in Human Resource Development and Corporate Communications in a large organization in India. The above views are my own and do not in any way reflect the views of my organization.
Don't bother.......2005-08-30
Don't waste your time or money on this lightweight. I would never have finished it except it's the only thing I brought with me on the plane. It made the Skymall magazine look pretty good! So-called product development "concepts" introduced (modular design, platform design, custom design) are nothing more than common sense and already in practice widely. The book goes on to describe a needlessly complex system of databases with names like "technical requirements flow-down matrix", "product experience domain", and "component design compliance matrix". This isn't Lean at all. This is creation of muda - wasted effort. And the story-telling approach which unfolds as a conversation between two engineers is literally painful to read. It sounds nothing like any natural conversation I've ever heard. It's thin, it's light, it's cheap, and it's worthless. Stay away.
Entertaining and Compelling: Breaking New Ground with Lean.......2005-05-04
What a great read! Fiore's Lean Strategies for Product Development provides excellent insight regarding the application of lean concepts in product development. Recognizing that product knowledge and information is the backbone of the development process, Fiore introduces three design strategies (modular, platform, and custom) that utilize product knowledge and information that will enable company's to reduce product development cycle time and cost. The strategies are supported by different tools that are introduced explained throughout the book.
In addition, the book demonstrates the role that software tools play enabling product development practitioners to efficiently and effectively find product knowledge and information that is need to support the development process. Finally, the book also demonstrates how product knowledge can be leveraged to integrate supply chain activities for selecting suppliers and reducing part procurement cost.
The concepts introduced throughout the book are weaved into a story between a customer and supplier. Not only was this an effective way to introduce the material, but it was also a very enjoyable and easy read. If you liked "The Goal" - you'll like this book. Everyone reading this book will come away with an understanding of how to apply lean in product development!
Be Lean - Do not waste your money on this title.......2005-04-06
This book does not even scratch the surface of Lean, not talking of Lean Product Development. It is a low quality, narrow-scope collection of everyday knowledge. Read any other work on Product Development or Process Optimization to learn more than what is offered here.
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