New Edition Of George Koenigsaecker's Best Selling Book "Leading the Lean Enterprise Transformation" Now Available

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Simpler® Consulting, L.P., a leading global management consulting firm, today announced  that Productivity Press has published Simpler Board Member George Koenigsaecker's new edition of his bestselling book Leading the Lean Enterprise Transformation. Drawing from his many years of experience leading Lean transformations, the new edition provides real-world examples of the powerful results Lean management enables including faster productivity, improved quality, cost savings and increased satisfaction. Additionally, Koenigsaecker provides further clarification of the least understood and most critical aspect of a Lean transformation: the building of a Lean culture.

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"In order to design a culture that is sustainable through multiple generations, leaders must learn how to see waste and empower others in the organization to constantly seek out change," said Koenigsaecker. "This latest edition of Leading the Lean Enterprise Transformation not only introduces powerful leadership tools — including strategy deployment, transformation value stream analysis and transformation plan of care — but also arms potential change agents with the soft skills needed to define, develop and communicate their vision. Detailing the steps required to sustain improvements, it supplies time-tested guidance for effective leadership throughout a Lean transformation in any organization."

Organized in the chronological sequence that a leader embarking on a Lean journey would experience, the book discusses the methods used by the author during the HON Company's successful Lean conversion, which doubled productivity, tripled revenues and led IndustryWeek to recognize HON as one of the "World's 100 Best Managed Firms."

Executives can expect to learn the following from the new edition of Leading the Lean Enterprise Transformation:

• Definition of Lean, its history and value in today's business environment;
• Valuable lessons and case studies of U.S. leaders who have been instrumental in bringing Lean to the forefront;
• How the Lean process works and the use of value stream analysis at the leadership level;
• How to structure Kaizen events that can improve the value stream;
• How to measure results from Lean initiatives;
• New information on tactical organization practices, strategy deployment and Lean culture

Leading the Lean Enterprise Transformation is available for purchase today at Amazon.

About the Author:

George Koenigsaecker is a principal investor in several Lean enterprises. He is a board member of the Shingo Prize (the international award for "Lean enterprises"), the Association of Manufacturing Excellence, the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value, Baird Capital Partners, Gefinor Venture Partners, Simpler Consulting and Watlow Electric Corporation.

From 1992 until 1999, Koenigsaecker led the Lean conversion of the HON Company, a $1.5-billion office furniture manufacturer. During this period, his efforts led to a tripling of volume and culminated in HON Industries being named by IndustryWeek magazine as one of the "World's Best Managed Companies."

Prior to this time, Koenigsaecker was with the Danaher Corporation, where he was president of the Jacobs Vehicle Equipment Company (whose Lean conversion is featured in the book Lean Thinking by Jim Womack and Dan Jones) and group president of the Tool Group, then the largest business unit of Danaher. In addition to leading the Lean conversion of these operations, Koenigsaecker developed and implemented the Danaher Business System, a comprehensive Lean enterprise model.

In addition, Koenigsaecker has held senior management positions in finance, marketing and operations with Rockwell International and Deere & Company. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School.

Praise for the Bestselling First Edition:

"Koenigsaecker has spent more time transforming more organizations into Lean enterprises than any other CEO. In this brief volume, he summarizes his 30 years of experimentation by describing Lean, showing how to measure it, explaining the role of value stream analysis and Kaizen and providing a tactical and a strategic action plan for Lean transformation."
— Jim Womack, chairman and founder, Lean Enterprise Institute

"Few, if any, American executives can match the variety and depth of experience with Lean transformations of George Koenigsaecker. So it comes as welcome news that George has written a book telling what he has learned and how he learned it. Leading the Lean Enterprise Transformation is simple, useful, packed with information, concise, to-the-point and easily accessible. It will be a great source for companies looking to begin or advance their Lean initiative or managers at any level wishing to deepen their personal learning."
— John Shook, founder, The TWI Network

About Simpler Consulting, L.P.
Simpler Consulting, L.P. is a leading global management consulting firm that helps companies improve processes to stimulate business-impacting results. Unlike traditional management consulting firms that specialize in developing strategy but fall short on execution, Simpler plays an active role helping clients create an organizational culture that continuously seeks out opportunities to make improvements. With its proprietary Simpler Business System^®, Simpler Sensei have delivered the fastest and most enduring Lean transformations at more than 80 healthcare networks around the world. To learn more, visit http://www.simpler.com.

© 2012 Simpler Consulting, L.P.

SOURCE Simpler Consulting