“Lean is a game changer,” states Business Professor and Management Consultant Raymond Shea in his review of Bill Artzberger’s new book, Powering the Lean Enterprise: Fundamentals of Lean for Super-Charging Your Company & Your Life.

“Many organizations keep ‘beating a dead horse’ and think that by working harder they can improve overall performance,” writes Dr. Shea. “The only thing they get is an exhausted dead horse. Lean is a game changer because it looks at the entire enterprise in a whole new way. Instead of fatiguing employees with continuous clarion calls for results, lean empowers them with a new organizational perspective and a set of skills that helps them work smarter, not just harder.”

Lean advocates who have witnessed first-hand or read well-documented accounts of company turnarounds attributed to implementation of lean technologies would readily concur. Lean is indeed a game changer.

Just as important as lean implementation, however, are lean learning and the method of presentation or delivery of lean’s basic lean tools and techniques.

“The standout genius or teacher in any field is always the person who is able to take what is incredibly complex, break it down to what is essential, and present it in a way that makes it seem simple,” states Dr. Shea. “Instead of providing clarity, many management gurus just end up complicating things. “After all, if their theories don’t sound sufficiently erudite, how can they be profound?

“Authors of books on lean principles tend to do the same thing—make things complicated—foregoing their initial promises to bring new enlightenment to managing organizational life. Without offering sufficient definitions or explanations of exactly what they’re talking about, says Shea, “… they use mystical and arcane terms, such as kaizen, and talk about black belts, six-sigma and virtuous cycles. Their jargon makes readers think they had better buy a magic wand and enroll in Hogwarts Academy. What we need today are more teachers and fewer experts. Bill Artzberger is one of those teachers.”

One of the stellar features of Powering the Lean Enterprise is its sizable glossary that defines lean terms and lists most of lean’s basic tools and techniques.

“If the goal of lean is to identify and eliminate non-essential and non-value-added steps in any process,” writes Dr. Shea, “then this book itself is a learning process that gives you all the fodder you need without any of the fluff.”

Bill Artzberger has over twenty-five years of experience in real-world senior management, including CIO, VP, President and CEO. He has worked with thousands of individuals from the boardroom to the shop floor, in virtually all sectors of industry. Currently Bill is the managing partner at the Lean Learning Center in Birmingham, Michigan. He has an MBA and is ITIL Certified, a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and a PMI certified Project Management Professional (PMP). Bill specializes in Lean Training, Consulting in Lean Manufacturing, Project Management, Kaizen Implementations, Shop Floor Management, Information Systems, and Supply Chain Management.

Powering the Lean Enterprise: Fundamentals of Lean for Super-Charging

Your Company & Your Life

by Bill Artzberger

ISBN 978-0-99667089-6-8

Business/Self-Help/Personal Growth

$US28.95, $CAN39.00

Powering the Lean Enterprise: Fundamentals of Lean for Super-Charging

Your Company & Your Life, published by Dandelion Books, is available globally in hard copy and eBook on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and all other major online bookstores. Distributed by Ingram Content Group, it is available by special order in all brick & mortar bookstores.