Resources for Educators

These items will be of interest to teachers in higher education and those interested in Lean higher education. They are useful as assignments for students in courses on Lean management, operations management, accounting, supply chain management, entrepreneurship, organizational behavior, and leadership. They are also useful for faculty interested in how to apply Lean principles and practices to their teaching and research.

Virginia Mason Visits Wiremold
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani
Recorded 5 November 2001 (released 1 October 2011)
These historic videos capture the presentations given by Wiremold company executives to the Virginia Mason Medical Center leadership team 5 November 2001. Faculty are encouraged to show these videos to students as part of their courses on Lean management and facilitate a detailed discussion of the videos' contents. Students with significant work experience can use this editable .pdf form to extract leadership lessons that they can apply at work. Students with little or no work experience can use this editable .pdf form to identify important things that they learned. (Right click to save .pdf files to your desktop). 4 hours and 8 minutes in duration.

Music as a Framework to Better Understand Lean Leadership
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani and M. Emiliani
Submitted for publication, 2011
This paper presents an innovative and creative way to explain why most senior managers have great difficulty comprehending and correctly practicing Lean leadership. It describes the depth and richness of relationships between Lean management and music, with the intent to help improve academics’ and practitioners’ understanding of Lean management, and how practitioners should learn Lean management and lead a Lean transformation. Request password via e-mail to open the file.

Frank George Woollard: Forgotten Pioneer of Flow Production
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani and P.J. Seymour
Journal of Management History, 2011
Frank George Woollard (1883-1957) established a low-volume flow production system in the British motor industry in the mid-1920s that contained most of the elements of Toyota's post-1950 production system. This paper is based on newly discovered journal papers, his long-forgotten 1954 book, Principles of Mass and Flow Production, newly discovered archives, and new first-hand testimony from a close friend and from a long-time family friend. Woollard's work is so significant that the timelines for discoveries and attributions of key accomplishments in Lean management must be revised. View a detailed presentation of Woollard's life and work.

Historical Lessons in Purchasing and Supplier Relationship Management
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani
Journal of Management History, 2010
Purchasing goods and services is a very important aspect of Lean management. This paper provides a very interesting historical background of non-zero-sum (win-win) purchasing and supplier relationship management as advocated by pioneering purchasing practitioners in the first half of the 20th century compared to current-day widespread zero-sum (win-lose) practices. Educators who teach operations management or supply chain management are encouraged to use this paper in their courses to broaden students' perspectives of the history of purchasing and supplier relationship management.

Kaizen Team Leader Guide
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani
Unpublished work, 2009 (updated 1.29.2012)
Innovation in higher education! A PowerPoint file for use by educators to conduct kaizens for improving academic courses and degree programs. Also explains why consultant-led approaches to the identification and elimination of costs are expensive, weak, incomplete, do not result in stakeholder buy-in, and ignore systemic process problems.

Origins of Lean Management in America: The Role of Connecticut Businesses
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani
Journal of Management History, 2006
This paper discusses the history of Lean management in America and describes the important roles that Connecticut businesses played in adopting and disseminating Lean management nationwide. Educators who teach operations management are encouraged to use this paper in their courses to broaden students' perspectives of the history of Lean management.

Improving Management Education
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani
Quality Assurance in Education, 2006
Discusses how management education can be significantly improved by correcting several obvious deficiencies in courses and degree programs to create a highly differentiated educational experience that is more relevant to student's needs and the organizations that employ them.

Using Kaizen to Improve Graduate Business School Degree Programs
Highly Commended Paper Award Winner
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani
Quality Assurance in Education, 2005
A ground breaking paper that describes how to conduct kaizens for academic courses and degree programs. Discusses the first-ever kaizens in higher education, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Hartford, Conn. campus) in 2002-2003. Use with the Kaizen Team Leader Guide.

Improving Business School Courses by Applying Lean Principles and Practices
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani
Quality Assurance in Education, 2004
A ground breaking paper that describes how faculty can apply Lean principles and practices to the design and delivery of their courses (any course), for the purpose of improving student satisfaction and to better prepare students for employment.

Is Management Education Beneficial to Society?
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani
Management Decision, 2004
Examines US-style management education and presents important opportunities for improvement will deliver greater benefits to society while simultaneously promoting the interests of business and their stakeholders.

A Mathematical Logic Approach to the Shareholder vs. Stakeholder Debate
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani
Management Decision, 2001
A simple yet rigorous analysis that corrects a common misunderstanding among faculty and students, and also is a key prerequisite for understanding how to correctly apply the "Respect for People" principle in Lean management.

The False Promise of "What Gets Measured Gets Managed"
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani
Management Decision, 2000
This is an important paper for business school students. Using simple mathematical logic, it disproves the popular adage "what gets measured gets managed." Managers will make better decision when use fewer, more meaningful metrics and when they use an appropriate balance of quantitative metrics and qualitative data and information.

The Oath of Management
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani
Management Decision, 2000
A solemn oath that every business school should require their students to subscribe to. This oath pre-dates the MBA Oath by nine years.

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"Principles for Responsible Business" by The Caux Round Table, March 2009, updated May 2010.
You should introduce this to your students no matter what you teach. It is an expression of non-zero-sum business principles that every Lean business must subscribe to. Very similar in content to Toyota's CSR POLICY: "Contribution towards Sustainable Development," but which can be adopted (unabridged) by any business.