Lean Production Simplified 3rd Ed. - Pascal’s Lean Insider Interview

By Pascal Dennis

Hi folks,

Fine interview recently with Lean Insider. Here are some highlights.

What motivated you to originally write the book Lean Production Simplified?

I wrote the first edition of Lean Production Simplified hoping to share what I’d learned at Toyota. I felt that if I could explain things simply, then perhaps I had gained a certain level of understanding. During the past 20 years, I’ve been the sensei helping companies apply the Toyota system or Lean.

Why did you write the 3rd edition?

My coaching practice has taken me far from the Toyota shop floor – into hospitals, power plants, container terminals, and research laboratories. And the more I learn, the more I think of Socrates -- "The more I know, the more I realize I don’t know." Hospitals, banks, universities, software developers, government agencies and other service providers are hungry for Lean thinking and methods. Their customers will no longer accept substandard safety, quality, delivery, or cost performance.

What’s different about the 3rd edition?

I’ve added many more examples from outside the factory (e.g. design, engineering, administration, etc.) and from the industry sectors I mentioned earlier. I’ve also included study questions at the end of each chapter.

How does Lean related to the martial arts?

My study of aikido helped prepare me for Toyota. I quickly realized the Toyota Way is a "do" or path, and that the Toyota shop floor is a dojo -- a place where you practiced a profound art or worked on your technique and on yourself. Indeed, before stepping on to the shop floor, I felt like bowing -- a sign of respect for my team, organization, and the art of management. I still feel that way.

Best regards, Pascal

PS Special Offer from my publisher:

Please feel free to contact my publisher Productivity Press (Taylor & Francis group) for a bulk offer or a customised version of Lean Production Simplified.

For North- and South-America: george.kenney@taylorandfrancis.com

For Rest of the World: georg.wanek@tandf.co.uk

Pascal Dennis Bio

Lean Production Simplified – 3rd Edition by Pascal Dennis

by Pascal Dennis

The more I know, the more I realize I don’t know.
Socrates

I wrote the first edition of Lean Production Simplified hoping to share what I’d learned at Toyota. It had been my blind luck to work with patient senseis. I felt that if I could explain things simply, then perhaps I had gained a certain level of understanding.

The past twenty years, I’ve been the sensei, helping companies apply the Toyota system or ‘Lean’. My practice has taken me far from the Toyota shop floor – into hospitals, power plants, container terminals, and research laboratories.

I’m certain that I learn as much as I teach. And the more I learn, the more I think of Socrates.

Why did I write the 3rd edition?

We need to learn the Toyota system – and not just in manufacturing. Hospitals, banks, universities, software developers, government agencies and other service providers are also hungry for Lean thinking and methods. Customers will no longer accept substandard safety, quality, delivery or cost performance.

Who is the book written for?

Leaders and learners at all levels in manufacturing, and in the ‘undiscovered country’ – health-care, financial services, the process industries, software development, construction, universities and the public service.

What’s different about the 3rd edition?

I’ve added many more examples from outside the factory (e.g. design, engineering, administration etc.) and from the industry sectors mentioned above.

I’ve also included study questions at the end of each chapter. My hope is that Lean Simplified 3rd Edition will be a working book and that I’ll continue to find in the gemba, filled with highlights and notes in the margin.

My study of aikido had prepared me for the Toyota “way”. I understood that it was a ‘do’ or path, and that the Toyota shop floor was a dojo, a place where you practiced a profound art, working on your technique, and on yourself. Indeed, before stepping on to the shop floor, I felt like bowing, a sign of respect for my team, organization, and the art of management.

I still feel that way.

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Lean Production Simplified -- 10 Year Anniversary!

By Pascal Dennis

Ten years ago I got a strange desire to write down all I'd learned about the Toyota Production System.

Not exactly sure why.

Partly to explain it to myself, partly because clients were asking for it, and partly because I just wanted to.

Anyhow, the result was Lean Production Simplified -- a Plain Language Guide to the World's Most Powerful Production System.

To my surprise, the book found an audience, won a Shingo Prize for Excellence, and is still going strong.

When I have a question, I still refer to the damned thing.

"That makes sense," I'll say to myself. "Why didn't I think of that?"

A few years back, my colleague Al Norval, and I, decided to make a series of webinars based on the book.

Our Lean Simplified Webinars have also, happily, found an audience and proved to be helpful.

Funny how things work out. (Where did the years go...?)

In any event, we'd like to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Lean Production Simplified with a series of special offers!

Look for them in the weeks & months to come!

Best regards,

Pascal