Resources for Managers

These items will be of interest to managers at any level and in any type of organization that is interested in or currently practicing Lean management. They will help managers of both long-established and Lean start-up businesses improve their understanding and daily practice of Lean management.

Virginia Mason Visits Wiremold
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani
Recorded 5 November 2001 (released 1 October 2011)
These historic videos capture an amazing event that took place on 5 November 2001, when a group of more than 25 executives, physicians, and department managers from Virginia Mason Medical Center (VMMC) made the long trip from Seattle, Washington, to West Hartford, Connecticut, to take a tour of The Wiremold Company. There is much to learn from these videos. Carefully study these videos and lots of take notes. 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. 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 an 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.

The Equally Important "Respect for People" Principle
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani
REAL LEAN, Volume Three, 2008 (Appendix I)
This paper shows how the "Respect for People" principle has been around since the dawn of progressive management (ca. 1900), but was conceptualized differently and given different names over the years.

Standardized Work for Executive Leadership
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani
Leadership and Organizational Development Journal, 2008
This paper provides the rationale for managers to adopt standardized work for their own daily activities, and presents a practical construct that managers can immediately use.

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.

Executive Decision-Making Traps and B2B Online Reverse Auctions
Highly Commended Paper Award Winner
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani
Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 2006
Here's why Lean leaders would never, never, never ever think of using reverse auctions on their suppliers.

Leaders Lost in Transformation
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani and D.J. Stec
Leadership and Organizational Development Journal, 2005
Describes the many ways in which managers can easily lose their way in a Lean transformation and suggests practical actions that can be taken to stay on track.

Using Value Stream Maps to Improve Leadership
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani and D.J. Stec
Leadership and Organizational Development Journal, 2004
This is a ground breaking paper that re-purposes value stream maps to be used as a diagnostic tool to identify specific leadership problems and provide practical direction on how to improve.

Linking Leaders' Beliefs to their Behaviors and Competencies
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani
Management Decision, 2003
This paper illustrates the tight coupling between leaders' beliefs, behaviors, and competencies, and shows how leaders who wish to progress from the current state of conventional management to the future state of Lean management must change their beliefs - and that changing only one's behaviors is insufficient.

Redefining the Focus of Investment Analysts
Citation of Excellence Award Winner
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani
TQM Magazine, 2001
This paper provides the logic and rationale for investment analysts to instead become muda analysts. They should analyze nonfinancial measures first because that is where the money really is. In doing so, they would provide superior guidance to executive teams.

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 business leaders, investors, educators, and others. Recognizing this fundamental error is critical to the correct application of 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 both new and advanced Lean practitioners. Using simple mathematical logic, it disproves the popular adage "what gets measured gets managed." This is important because Lean practitioners must use a few appropriate quantitative metrics and also improve their understanding and use of qualitative data and information. Businesses new to Lean management will typically overemphasize quantitative information and use metrics rooted in batch-and-queue processing.

The Oath of Management
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani
Management Decision, 2000
A solemn oath that every Lean leader should subscribe to. "Do no harm."

Cracking the Code of Business
Highly Commended Paper Award Winner
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani
Management Decision, 2000
This paper utilizes the principles and tools of Lean management to decode the CEOs mandates and deliver practical, solutions-oriented tools to employees to help achieve stretch business goals, and also shows how to align the management system and organizational behaviors.

Lean Behaviors
Outstanding Paper Award Winner
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani
Published in Management Decision, 1998
A ground breaking paper that shows why leadership behaviors must be consistent with Lean management system. Inconsistencies result in behavioral waste, which adds cost but adds no value. This is the paper that coined the terms "Lean behaviors" and "behavioral waste."

Continuous Personal Improvement
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani
Journal of Workplace Learning, 1998
Shows how Lean tools and processes can be applied to the challenge of improving one's interpersonal, managerial, and leadership skills. Discusses how the management system in use, Lean, can be applied to personal development, thereby reducing or eliminating the need for complex organizational behavior, organizational development, or leadership models that can be difficult understand to apply actual workplace settings.

---

"Principles for Responsible Business" by The Caux Round Table, March 2009, updated May 2010.
Non-zero-sum business principles that every Lean business must subscribe to in support of the "Respect for People" principle. Very similar in content to Toyota's CSR POLICY: "Contribution towards Sustainable Development," but which can be adopted (unabridged) by any business.