"Lean Consumption" — Using technology to make life easier for consumers

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    Boston.com / Business / Technology

    Dr. James Womack and Dr. Daniel Jones have a new book coming out this fall. A preview of that book is presented in the current Harvard Business Review and is summarized in this article.

    The Lean Enterprise Institute has made some PDF reprints available here for the lean community.

    Lean Consumption (PDF Download)

    Many of the concepts in the article relate to applying lean to customer service and service industries (reducing NVA time, root cause problem solving etc.). There's an interesting manufacturing example about how Nike produces its custom shoes and backpacks in San Francisco. Nike decided it was cheaper from an overall standpoint to have the fast response of shipping from high-labor-cost San Francisco rather than trying to ship them from Asia. This certainly makes sense when you're building a custom product and labor costs are a relatively small proportion of your total cost (this is true in many industries).

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    Mark Graban
    Mark Graban is an internationally-recognized consultant, author, and professional speaker, and podcaster with experience in healthcare, manufacturing, and startups. Mark's latest book is The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation, a recipient of the Shingo Publication Award. He is also the author of Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More, Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, and the anthology Practicing Lean, previous Shingo recipients. Mark is also a Senior Advisor to the technology company KaiNexus.

    3 COMMENTS

    1. This is a great article. The principles identified are reminisent of Tom Peters’ suggestions in the 80s for ‘delighting’ our customers. Some things don’t change.

    2. This is a great article. The principles identified are reminisent of Tom Peters’ suggestions in the 80s for ‘delighting’ our customers. Some things don’t change.

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