Managing Automation- July 2008

COVER STORY LEAN MEET MR. LEAN James Womack wrote the book on lean — make that many books. He didn’t invent the practice, but he and his research colleagues knew a good thing when they saw it at Toyota. B Y E M I LY - S U E S L O A N E J ames Womack self-ef facingly ness and continued to study its producclaims to be a megaphone for the tion and management methods. In 1990, smart people who figured out a they described those “lean” practices in a better way to manufacture cars book, The Machine that Changed the and run a company. But some say he World. That machine also changed Womhas the power to change the world. And ack, who made lean his life’s work. they point to his influence on them perWomack founded the Lean Enterprise sonally, their companies, and the manuInstitute in 1997 as a non-profit training, facturing industry. publishing, conferencing, and manage“I am positive, but for James Womack, ment research organization dedicated to that I would have gone out of business promoting lean concepts. six years ago,” states Matthew Lovejoy, “Jim, along with Dan Roos and Dan president of aluminum castings manuJones, brought lean to the attention of facturer Lovejoy Industries. “He taught the manufacturing public,” Alschuler me to see.” says. They understood Indeed, Womack James P Womack that the principles could . has educated most of be applied anywhere “if AGE: 59 the manufacturing companies were willing POSITION: Founder and chairman, Lean workforce on lean. to change their pro Enterprise Institute “You can trace cesses and thinking. CHIEF ACCOMPLISHMENT: Presenting the every consulting comThey saw that the barlean concept as a complete enterprise management system instead of just a colpany and practitioner riers were institutional.” lection of tools back to him,” says Changing people’s AWARDS: Seeing the Whole and Lean David Alschuler, printhinking is what WomSolutions: Shingo Research Prize winners, 2003 and 2006, respectively; The Machine cipal at Industr y Diack does. He calls himthat Changed the World, Business Book of rections. “Now lean is self a “practical social the Year, 1990, by the Financial Times widely accepted as a philosopher.” In an inMOST ADMIRED: People who actually philosophy of how you terview with Managing make things happen; those managers who are out there doing the hard work to manage your business Automation, he exmanufacture things processes.” plains: “I look at what Womack coined the people can do to make term “lean” to describe work more creative and the Toyota production help customers solve system that has helped their problems. Once catapult the company you’ve pinpointed the to the top in automoright problem, you can bile sales worldwide. set up processes and In a study of the find ways to sustain world’s automakers in those processes.” the mid-1970s, WomWhen he sees someack and fellow MIT reone going down the searchers Dan Roos wrong path, he says, “I and Dan Jones recogtry to remind people of nized Toyota’s uniquethings that don’t work.” Donald Runkle has experienced Womack’s candor firsthand. Runkle instituted lean principles at Delphi in the 1990s, when he was vice chairman and CTO. “Womack has good, clear, sound thinking. It was useful to have him talk to our organization. He said we weren’t as good as we thought we were,” Runkle says. He is now chairman of Eagle Picher, where he is starting to deploy lean principles. The fast-talking, energetic Womack insists that lean is applicable enterprisewide, not only in the factor y. “What we’ve tried to do is present this lean concept as a complete enterprise management system instead of just a collection of tools. If you’re working just with the tools, you’re like a carpenter with a hammer who doesn’t have a blueprint,” he says. The blueprint arises from lean management, Womack’s current passion. Executives who learn to focus on the questions of purpose, process, and people are exercising “lean thinking,” which, by the way, is the title of another seminal book by Womack and Jones. Lovejoy has read the book 40 times and listened to it on tape 50 times, not to mention giving it to hundreds of people. When the telecom bubble burst in 2001, his business went into freefall — dropping 70% in six months. “I had to bet the company on something or close it,” he recounts. “I bet it on lean.” Lovejoy says: “The wisdom in Dr. Womack’s approach is really profound and his motivations are so pure. He does want to change the world. He’s not in this for personal gain.” Womack, for his part, avoids taking too much credit. “I’m delighted that you guys would think I have some influence,” Womack says. “I don’t have any illusions about my role. Change and improvement are done at the gemba [workplace], not by me.” In case you’re wondering, Womack owns two cars, one 10 years old and the other 12. Neither is a Toyota. “I have zero interest in cars. I’m interested in creating the most value with the least effor t,” he says. “I’m the car guy who walks to work 2.5 miles ever y day except in the rain.” ma 18 2008 July

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Managing Automation- July 2008

Managing Automation- July 2008 Contents Take 1 HP's Acquisition of EDS May Face Integration, Global Delivery Challenges Rimini Plans to Woo SAP Support Users Rockwell Steps Up Its Activities in Software Microsoft Targets the Process of Innovation Supply Chain Standouts Honored by AMR Notes Who Are Today's Influential Thinkers? The Robot Revolution Is the Price Right? Without a Trace Harvesting the Suggestion Box Product Scan Advertiser Index Next

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