The Gold Mine: A Novel of Lean Turnaround
The Gold Mine: a Novel of Lean Turnaround deftly weaves together the technical and human pieces of implementing lean manufacturing in an engaging story that readers will find both compelling and instructive. Authors Freddy and Michael Ballé have produced the first integrated and systematic approach to a set of ideas that have maximized value and minimized waste throughout the world. At the heart of the Gold Mine is Bob Woods, a curmudgeonly sensei coaxed out of retirement by his son Mike to help boyhood friend Phil Jenkinson save his struggling company. Despite terrific products and a backlog of orders, Phils company cannot generate enough cash from its operations to pay its bills. And so Mike enlists Bob to help his pal fix this crisis.
"Youre trying to deal with your mess as if it was a technical problem," Bob tells Phil. "Move this machine here, change this design there, which it is to some extent, but its all about people. You have a leadership problem not just a production or business problem." As Phil begins to tackle the key challenges necessary to improve his companys operations, he comes to understand the deeper points of lean. Readers will also draw powerful insights from his journey.
The Gold Mine presents all the key lean principles, ranging from well-known ideas such as pull and flow, to lesser-known yet equally important principles such as jidoka and heijunka. The book also reveals lean as a systemusing a realistic story to show how the principles are interrelated and how they lead to useful tools such as kanban or 5S.
Editorial Reviews
From the Publisher
"The Gold Mine is the first book to comprehensively introduce all the lean tools by means of a vivid personal story showing how hearts and minds are won over, said publisher James Womack, LEI president and founder. "It will spark ah-has from everyone who has been there and provide profound insight for those who are just getting started."
"Reading The Gold Mine is like eavesdropping on a sensei dispensing gems to a client," says co-publisher Daniel Jones, founder of the Lean Academy in the UK. "Readers, especially those individuals working on the shop floor, will gain revelation and inspiration by living through the experiences of the hero. Managers and executives just beginning a lean transformation will learn valuable insights about how to sidestep the technical and people problems that lay ahead. And experienced lean thinkers will discover fresh insights about overcoming resistance to change."
From the Author
Our novelistic approach addresses one of the reasons that it's so hard to find any workable lean "recipe," which is that the tools, or at least their level of implementation, must be linked to the management's lean maturity. For instance, we would argue that lean is fundamentally about rigorous problem solving and involving operators in kaizen. Fine. But in most working environments, if you start there, as most TQM or six sigma programs do, you will end up with disappointing results. People will get confused about which problems to solve, how to go about change, and what kind of attitude to adopt when dealing with resistance or recurring problems. In a factory it's usually easier to start a lean program with the basics, such as seven wastes, 5S, red bins for quality, reducing batch sizes by increasing tool changeover, and moving progressively to eliminating variation in the operators' work cycle.
Product details- Paperback: 360 pages
- Publisher: Lean Enterprises Inst Inc (May 30, 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0974322563
- ISBN-13: 978-0974322568
- Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1 x 8.8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
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