New Lean Management Book, Gemba Walks, by James Womack, founder of the Lean Enterprise Institute, Challenges the Prevailing Management System

Cambridge, MA, March 17, 2011 --(PR.com)-- In the new ground-breaking book Gemba Walks, management thinker Jim Womack shares a simple approach to business that will help every business leader, policy maker, and anyone working earnestly in any organization re-think how they create value, deliver goods or services, and fulfill purpose.

Drawing on 30 years of experience as the pioneer in explaining lean management, Womack illustrates the power of rooting improvement efforts in the “gemba,” a Japanese word referring to the place where work takes place, and where value is created.

“How do we understand the gemba?” asks Womack. “And more important, how do we make it a better place—one where we can create more value with less waste, variation, and overburden?”

Value-Stream Walking
For 10 years Womack has shared his answers based on countless trips to companies in a monthly e-letter. In Gemba Walks, Womack has selected his key essays and written new material.

Highlights:

- a broader historical view of the ascendancy and recent troubles of Toyota and the bankruptcy of GM.
- why lean is the most important advance in management thinking of the past 50 years, one that is fundamentally different—and fundamentally superior to the currently dominant management system.
- a methodology for walking value streams from beginning to end to learn the current condition and the most promising areas for improvement.
- why companies need fewer executive heroes and more “farmers.”

Gemba Walks: Published, March 15, 2011, Lean Enterprise Institute.

To download excerpts or purchase Gemba Walks, visit LEI at lean.org.

James Womack
As research director of MIT’s International Motor Vehicle Program, Womack led the team that coined “lean production.” Books co-authored by Womack and Daniel Jones include: The Machine That Changed the World (with Daniel Roos), Lean Thinking, Seeing The Whole: mapping the extended value stream, and Lean Solutions.

Lean Enterprise Institute
Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc., was founded in 1997 by management expert James P. Womack, Ph.D., as a nonprofit research, education, publishing, and conference company with a mission to advance lean thinking around the world. Learn more at lean.org.

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