Hitchhiker's Guide To Lean Summary

Book Review: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road
“Hitchhikers don’t travel a fixed path. They intentionally wander so they can learn and change along the way. Embarking on the lean journey is similar, there are many roads on which to wander and no single one is right for all.” These words serve as a very intriguing introduction to the book, The Hitchhiker 's Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road, co-authored by Jamie Flinchbaugh and Andy Carlino and published by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers in 2006. The book reflects what the authors consider to be the most critical lessons learned over their combined thirty-plus years of exploring the lean highways with intent to help lean implementers move beyond the tools
The book focuses on lean thinking and the rules and principles of lean which provides a roadmap that will help an organization move closer towards being a lean enterprise. This is why the authors consider this book to be a guide and not simply a technical how-to manual. In this book review, I will give a brief description and evaluation of The Hitchhikers Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road and also explain the meaning of these ideas as they apply to my company, General Motors.
The first five chapters of The Hitchhiker Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road apply to lean at any stage of transformation and to any industry or function. Focusing on lean transformation, five key principles are provided to guide lean behaviors throughout an organization from the top executives to the front-line personnel. These five principles include observing work as activities, connections, and flows, eliminating waste systematically, establishing high agreement of what and how, solving problems
This book does not imitate the same lean concepts you have read a dozen times before, but adds to the discussion and knowledge of lean. The book’s structure is unique because there is practically no focus on specific application of tools. Readers will not see chapters devoted to works cells, value stream mapping, kaizen, Five S, or any other tools. This is good because lean suffers too much from teaching the application of lean tools before teaching an understanding of true lean thinking. This book also does a great job at expressing the importance of effective communication from company leaders to develop the organization’s culture during their lean transformation. The final section of the book, which includes interviews with five lean leaders, was one of the most beneficial from a learning perspective. The champions’ varied responses were very educational and inspirational and gave an insightful, firsthand perspective of their lean journeys which would provide reference for any new or complacent lean thinker. I would recommend this to book anyone who is interested in the lean way of thinking and I would strongly recommend it to those who are just beginning their lean journey or to those who have struggled with lean and are looking for additional tips and ideas to get their lean journey back