The Remedy: Bringing Lean Thinking Out of the Factory to Transform the Entire Organization: Amazon.co.uk: Pascal Dennis: Books

Product Description

A powerful business fable that shows you how to spread Lean business practices to every function of your business

Pascal Dennis is a Lean business learner and practitioner who has written four books on the subject of Lean business practices. In The Remedy, he shows how Lean business practices can be expanded from manufacturing to all the other areas of your business–including design, engineering, sales, and marketing and all processes in between–and how doing so builds a more efficient organization at every level.

This story follows Tom Pappas and Rachel Armstrong, senior leaders at a desperate automotive company as they try to implement a Lean management system across an entire platform, the Chloe, a breakthrough "green" car. The future of the company is at stake. Can Tom and Rachel, supported by Andy Saito, a retired, reclusive Toyota executive, regain the trust and respect of the customer? Can a venerable but dying company implement Lean practices to every part of their business and learn a new, more effective way of managing?

Shows you how to use the Lean quality improvement method to fix not just a manufacturing system, but an entire company, including management, design, marketing, and supply chain
Written by Pascal Dennis, author of four books on Lean practices and winner of the coveted Shingo Prize for outstanding research contributing to operational excellence
Originally developed by Toyota, the Lean approach to quality improvement has gained a worldwide following and helped turn around enumerable struggling businesses

If your business is treading water–or sinking in the waves–The Remedy will show you how to put Lean processes to work in every functional area for long–term business survival and success.

From the Inside Flap

Are you wondering how to do more with less by pushing "Lean thinking" beyond manufacturing into every area of your company? Meet Tom Papas, the hero of Pascal Dennis′s enlightening Lean business novel The Remedy. As plant manager for New Jersey Motors Manufacturing (NJMM), Tom has used Lean methodologies and processes to make his manufacturing operation a bright spot for otherwise limping automaker Taylor Motors. Now Tom has been called to company headquarters near Detroit to meet with Senior Vice President Rachel Armstrong. Will she offer Tom a promotion? Or will the shortsighted CFO J. Ed Morgan cut NJMM to the bone and negate all Tom′s hard work?

A powerful story for today′s challenging economy, The Remedy doubles as a highly readable playbook for taking your Lean practices into marketing, service, and other parts of the organization where Lean hasn′t typically been applied. Bringing back characters from Dennis′s Shingo Prize–winning Lean novel Andy & Me, including the reclusive quality sensei Andy Saito, this new tale demonstrates how you can bring Lean processes to your entire enterprise.

Follow Tom, Rachel, and Andy as they embark on a mission to revitalize Taylor Motors in the face of the U.S. auto industry′s devastating meltdown. Along the way, you′ll discover illuminating new ways to:

Apply Lean concepts and methods beyond manufacturing to corporate functions such as marketing, supply chain, and design
Overcome the politics of large organizations as you create change
Define your True North—your strategic and philosophical objective
Apply Lean to knowledge–based workflows
Understand and strengthen the Four Rules and the Four Capabilities in your organization
Reduce waste and build value in different kinds of enterprises such as health care and retail

Do you want to improve your business, but haven′t considered Lean processes as a possible approach? The Remedy offers a vibrant, entertaining look at how today′s Lean techniques can be applied far beyond the factory floor.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

A 'Good-Read' Novel Which Is Also a Reference Book 23 Aug 2010

By Mr. Stuart Foster

Format:Hardcover

It took a while coming, but worth the wait....

This book by Pascal Dennis's continues with the 'easy-read' quality removing any mystique out of lean. This book is a milestone, in my opinion, to help illustrate that simple lean thinking principles apply everywhere in an organisation. The continuing storyline from his 1st novel style book on lean "Andy & Me" is clever. The Remedy shows that the simplicity of Lean, with people at the centre again. It particularly rang true for me with the unfolding stories of the inevitable implementation corporate anitibodies. Loved the simple pictures which are the easy reference points to find the supporting paragraphs to many key principles.

I wish it'd been in soft-cover as I suspect it'll live in my briefcase with me for a while.. Great now as e-book.

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A fictional story with lean theory extract enriched with cartoon-style shapes and diagrams 8 July 2011

By Constantine

Dennis presents a fictional story based on a car re-launch. As the project team faces the difficulties and the challenges of that effort, at the right point, He introduces elements of lean theory gradually with some interesting cartoon-style sketches and diagrams. One might say that there is enough flow to keep the reader's mind occupied however story parts which are related to personal relationships between the story characters/protagonists are irrelevant and tiring. The presented theory elements (which appear in separate texts) might be useful insights for lean practitioners but they remain mostly basic and ''light''. The reader should not expect a ''heavy'' on theory and practice book. The interesting part of the book still remains the questions for self assessment/self study at the end of each chapter.

A Great Little Book (now plastered in Post-it tabs...) 22 Sep 2010

By Mr. P. Stickland

A very useful way of describibg how a whole organisation needs to embrace Lean - not just production. The novelisation idea was good, if a little contived towards the end, but that can be forgiven because of the wealth of good information and ideas contained. The cartoon-like digrams on almost every page are a good touch too.