The Lean Strategy: Using Lean to Create Competitive Advantage, Unleash Innovation, and Deliver Sustainable Growth

A groundbreaking and revolutionary book that will transform how lean is understood, practiced, and used within organizations

A lean strategy is about gaining a competitive edge by offering better quality products at competitive prices and making a sustainable profit by eliminating waste through engaging employees in discovering deeper ways to think about their own jobs and smarter ways of working together. In its current form, lean has been radically effective, but its true powers have yet to be harnessed.

Lean Strategy harnesses that power and delivers a new way of creating value from lean. Leading lean experts address popular misconceptions about the basics of lean/TPS, showing the true purpose of tools, methods, and attitudes that leverage the intelligence of every employee doing the work. You’ll learn how to think—and then act—differently, tapping the power of every person in your organization in a disciplined manner that generates unparalleled, sustainable success that is responsive to today’s most pressing challenges

About the Authors

Dr. Michael Ballé is a best-selling author and executive coach with twenty years’ experience in lean research and practice. He is associate researcher at Telecom Paristech where he co-founded the Projet Lean Entreprise and the French Lean Institute. Ballé co-authored the Shingo Prize-winning lean novels The Gold Mine, The Lean Manager, and Lead with Respect. He has a background in systems thinking and cognitive sociology. He lives in Paris, France.

Daniel T. Jones was part of the original MIT research team that discovered and codified the system Toyota used to make automobiles and named it Lean. He is the co-author of the classic groundbreaking works The Machine that Changed the World and Lean Thinking. A bestselling, award-winning author, researcher, advisor to executive teams, and keynote speaker, Jones is co-founder and chairman of the non-profit Lean Enterprise Institute in the US, the Lean Enterprise Academy in the UK, and the Lean Global Network of institutes. He resides in England.

Orest (Orry) J. Fiume was chief financial officer and a Director of The Wiremold Company, the internationally recognized leader in lean business management. He has taught workshops on Lean Accounting at the Lean Enterprise Institute, the TBM Institute, the University of Dayton Center for Competitive Change, and Manufacturing Extension Partnerships (MEPs). He serves on the Board of Directors of The Lean Enterprise Institute. Fiume lives in Arlington, VA.

Jacques Chaize is a pioneer in developing lean organizations. He was CEO of Danfoss Water Controls, a leading French/Danish water valve specialist that served as a model of lean practice. Since 2011, he has worked as an entrepreneur and consultant, serving on the boards of companies in Europe and North America. He is the author of two business books and co-founder and president of SOL (Society for Organizational Learning) France. Chaize lives in Paris, France.