Gemba Walks

Womack, Jim

ISBN 10: 1934109150 / ISBN 13: 9781934109151

Published by Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc, Cambridge, MA, 2011

About this Item

The format is approximately 5.125 inches by 7.25 inches. xxv, [1], 348, [2] pages. Decorative cover. Index. Inscribed by the author on the title page. The inscription reads "For Doctor Woodrcock, With high hopes for productive gemba walks at the FDA. Jim Womack 4/13/11". Foreword by John Shook. The contents include Introduction, Purpose, People, Management, Transformation, Diffusion, The Great Recession, Misunderstandings, Misadventures, The Great Chase, and History that is Not Bunk. James P. Womack was the research director of the International Motor Vehicle Program (IMVP) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is the founder and chairman of the Lean Enterprise Institute, a nonprofit institution for the dissemination and exploration of the Lean thinking with the aim of his further development of the Lean Enterprise. Womack received his bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Chicago in 1970. He earned his master's degree in transportation systems in 1975 at Harvard University. His Ph.D. in political science was received from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1982 for a dissertation on the comparison of industrial policy in the United States, Germany and Japan. Womack first became widely known as an author in 1990 with publication of the book The Machine That Changed the World, which made the term lean production known worldwide. "The life of lean is experiments. All authority for any sensei flows from experiments on the gemba [the place where work takes place], not from dogmatic interpretations of sacred texts or the few degrees of separation from the founders of the movement. In short, lean is not a religion but a daily practice of conducting experiments and accumulating knowledge." So writes Jim Womack, who over the past 30 years has developed a method of going to visit the gemba at countless companies and keenly observing how people work together to create value. Over the past decade, he has shared his thoughts and discoveries from these visits with the Lean Community through a monthly letter. With Gemba Walks, Womack has selected and reorganized his key letters, as well as written new material providing additional context. Gemba Walks shares his insights on topics ranging from the application of specific tools, to the role of management in sustaining lean, as well as the long-term prospects for this fundamental new way of creating value. Reading this book will reveal to readers a range of lean principles, as well as the basis for the critical lean practice of: go see, ask why, and show respect. Version 1.0 [First Edition] presumed first printing thus.

Seller Inventory # 88815

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Gemba Walks
• Publisher: Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc, Cambridge, MA
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1934109150
• ISBN 13: 9781934109151
• Binding: Trade paperback with flaps
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

"The life of lean is experiments. All authority for any sensei flows from experiments on the gemba [the place where work takes place], not from dogmatic interpretations of sacred texts or the few degrees of separation from the founders of the movement. In short, lean is not a religion but a daily practice of conducting experiments and accumulating knowledge." So writes Jim Womack, who over the past 30 years has developed a method of going to visit the gemba at countless companies and keenly observing how people work together to create value. Over the past decade, he has shared his thoughts and discoveries from these visits with the Lean Community through a monthly letter. With Gemba Walks, Womack has selected and re-organized his key letters, as well as written new material providing additional context. Gemba Walks shares his insights on topics ranging from the application of specific tools, to the role of management in sustaining lean, as well as the long-term prospects for this fundamental new way of creating value. Reading this book will reveal to readers a range of lean principles, as well as the basis for the critical lean practice of: go see, ask why, and show respect.