"John Dewey famously pointed out, 'We don't learn from experience. We
learn from reflecting on experience.' Here's your chance to learn as the
three authors reflect on the (successful) struggle to build a Lean
production and management system at Zingerman's Mail Order. Thousands of
people visit and benchmark ZMO. This book delivers the backstory in a
richly illustrated way."
-- Mike Rother, author of the bestselling books Toyota Kata and The
Toyota Kata Practice Guide
This clever and highly engaging graphic novel details a story about one
organization's Lean journey with inspiration from the Toyota Way.
Over the years, common misunderstandings about what Lean is, what the
journey is like, and how to advance have proliferated. Often, these
misunderstandings come from the way people simplistically talk and think
about Lean as if it is some concrete thing that you insert into an
organization and step back to watch the results.
The authors, however, view the organization as a living system with
interacting parts and constant exposure to the environment. It is
dynamic, so it's hard to predict what obstacles you will face next. Just
when you think you have it solved, new challenges arise from the market,
competitors, government regulations, and every direction you turn to.
When you look at your organization in this way, you see Lean through a
different lens. The goal is to make your processes and people into a
more adaptive system so you can navigate through all the complexity and
uncertainty to continually achieve your goals. This is how Toyota views
things and they summarize the Toyota Way as continuous improvement and
respect for people. Each person becomes a partner in struggling to learn
and adapt, and specific tools are used in very different ways throughout
the company to accomplish their goals.
The story presented here focuses on a small company called Zingerman's
Mail Order (ZMO). Tom Root was one of the founders of this spin-off of
the Zingerman's delicatessen. The deli was founded to bring high-quality
artisanal food to Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The purpose of this book is not to provide a "recipe for
implementation" - the authors want you to get a feeling for the
struggle, for the learning process. They explain and demonstrate many
Lean tools within the context of the journey and how they were adapted
for this particular business. Toyota kata became the centerpiece of
developing scientific thinking skills to begin to bring continuous
improvement to life.
