Developing a Lean Workforce : A Guide for Human Resources, Plant Managers, and Lean Coordinators(Paperback) - 2007 Edition

by Chris Harris

Transform your Human Resource Department into an "Agent of Change" Throughout your Lean Implementation. Changing an organization from a mass manufacturing environment to a lean environment is significant and affects all levels of the company if the implementation is done correctly. Many times, however, lean implementers become so involved with the nuts and bolts of lean implementation that the "people" side of the business is neglected. In Developing a Lean A Guide for Human Resources, Plant Managers, and Lean Coordinators, Chris and Rick Harris walk you through a simple, step-by-step method for taking a mass production workforce - consisting of production associates, team leaders, and area supervisors - and turning it into a lean thinking workforce with the necessary skills, training, and attitude to march in a new direction... the direction of Lean.This book helps you in three important ways. It Explain the current state of Human Resources in the facility and show that a systematic method of training is needed to develop those resources into a lean-thinking workforce. Provide you with sample training sessions and explanations that you can use in training and involving your employees right now! Identify two major Human Resources policy practices that benefit facilities tremendously -- Continuously training associates, whether they're newly hired or are getting trained in new areas within the facility; and effectively promoting employees from within the facility to team leader and group leader positions."Most of us are now far enough down the path in lean production to realize that the results lie in the details. This short volume presents all of the details you will need to create a frontline workforce and system of direct supervision that can effectively plan, do, reflect, and adjust, as you move your own operations steadily ahead." --From the Foreword by James Womack, Chairman, Lean Enterprise Institute This book will detail Human Resources' role in a lean manufacturing transformation and guide it to develop a "Lean Thinking" workforce.

Paperback

First published February 1, 2007

Reviews

[Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

The chapters are short. Harris & Harris (2007) outline a 'lean training pathway':
Ch3 Lean 101, Ch4. Workplace Organization, Ch5. Value Stream Maps, Ch 6. Continuous Flow, Ch 7. Materials Delivery Systems, Ch. 8 Develop leaders (aka supervisors), use training to continually improve.
The other chapters bookend the 'lean training pathway'.