Book Review
Lean Solutions
James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones
Free Press, 2005
290 pp. $30
Y
ou are going to want to read Lean Solutions.
You're reading Target, so you're involved with
lean in some way. Whether in your production
operation, supply chain, or enterprise business
processes, you've likely seen the application of — or
need for — lean principles in your organization.
Womack and Jones expand the competitive implica-
tions of lean for those of us whose principal tasks are
implementing and sustaining lean production. But,
Lean Solutions is not a how-to lean book. Instead, it's
another step on the path Womack and Jones started
with The Machine that Changed the World, and Lean
Thinking. It is very much a where-next-with-lean book
(and I don't mean low cost countries).
Lean Solutions persuasively illustrates the compet-
itive advantages of extending lean thinking far down-
stream from the four walls of your organization.
Womack and Jones in this book describe, in case stud-
ies, two overarching business processes beyond pro-
duction: provision, and consumption. This focus reach-
es beyond your supply chain, beyond your enterprise
boundaries, all the way to the customers who purchase,
use, and manage your — or your OEM customer's —
service or product. Using case after case, Lean Solutions
illustrates and documents the strategic value of a lean
operation: producing with a single pacemaker; nimble,
quick-change production of mixed models in response
to demand rather than forecasts; replenishing in small
lots rather than pushing large batches; simple pull sig-
naling rather than elaborate electronic systems with
multiple schedule points; and more.
Thus, Lean Solutions is a well-reasoned argument
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for lean as a basis of successful business strategies,
more than a way to cut costs in factory or office
processes. Up to now in your lean journey, other func-
tions may only have been spectators, and not always
cheering for the lean team. Bystanders might include
product development, sales, marketing, customer serv-
ice, accounting, materials and production control,
logistics, and executive management. Womack and
Jones highlight lean lessons from operations that apply
to every part of an organization, regardless of product
or service provided.
The authors also address the rush to Asia, both in
manufacturing and services. Their "lean location logic"
doesn't dismiss the reality of labor costs, but it does
provide real-life examples of turning this eastward
stampede around. They frame the China issue in the
context of market characteristics, maturity of product
and technology, and the total, all-in, end-to-end cost of
the value stream. Their conclusion is that when low
cost labor appears to be necessary, seek it in the region
of sale.
The book is organized according to six customer
perspectives that Womack and Jones cite as the princi-
ples of lean consumption:
1. Solve my problem completely
2. Don't waste my time
3. Provide exactly what I want
4. Deliver value where I want it
5. Supply value when I want it
6. Reduce the number of decisions I must make to
solve my problems.
 Book Review
They illustrate the first five principles with
provocative case histories — or in some cases, hoped-
for examples of what could be possible — from the
world we all experience on a day-to-day basis: getting
your car repaired; calling a help desk for technical sup-
port; shopping for groceries, shoes, hardware, and
other household and personal goods; buying "personal
capital goods" like cars or computers; air travel; health
care; and others. The consumption problems for which
the authors are seeking solutions involve the life cycle
of obtaining, installing, integrating, maintaining,
upgrading, and recycling, and all the decisions and
tradeoffs involved throughout.
Lean thinkers recognize the value of time, and its
importance in judging a process. Womack and Jones
apply this thinking when illustrating the mapping of
provision and consumption processes. The rule is sim-
ple: Waiting is waste. Lean Solutions goes beyond con-
sidering process time as a percentage of leadtime. It
uses a "hassle factor" to characterize customer wait
time that is just what it sounds like: the aggravation of
being on hold with tech support, standing in the secu-
rity queue at the airport, sitting past your appointment
time in the healthcare waiting room, and the like.
Womack and Jones also document the disturbing
observation that the most problematic nodes in provi-
sion and consumption are those at which the two
processes contact with each other — where consumers
and providers meet. For example, they cite the high
rate of turnover among employees who actually talk
with callers to conventional help desk call centers. As
a counter-example, they illustrate an actual lean help
desk operation.
One of the most useful, if brief, sections of the
book is the discussion of management, and the organi-
zational infrastructure required to support lean solu-
tions. A common experience is that managers who
have come up through a conventional organization
continue the managerial habits, practices, and behav-
iors they've learned in successful careers preceding a
lean conversion. Unfortunately, nearly all of these
habits, practices, and behaviors are incompatible with
the effectiveness of lean applications. Womack and
Jones address this issue in more detail than most, pre-
scribing an organizational structure to support lean
provision. They focus on process, an end-to-end view
that never loses sight of value as defined by the cus-
tomer, rightly identifying this as a requirement to bring
lean solutions into reality, and to sustain them.
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The only gap I found in Lean Solutions emerged in
this context. Womack and Jones introduce a method
for mapping provision and consumption, making the
processes visible, and problem areas stand out. And,
they use the icons and techniques of value stream map-
ping to similarly document batch processes compared
with lean supply and replenishment in the provision
process. But they don't use the value stream map itself
as a tool to illustrate the actual operation of provision
and consumption, both within and between organiza-
tions. To be fair, they describe the steps one would
take to produce value stream maps of enterprise busi-
ness processes, including those between firms in the
provision value stream. But they don't make the final
connection for the reader; actually mapping these busi-
ness processes is an incredibly powerful way to bring
the light of day to business processes that have, in
many cases, simply grown and changed with little or no
attention to the effectiveness of the process as a whole,
and in the absence of process measures that reflect
value as defined by the customer. Fortunately, books
and workshops are available that make these connec-
tions and techniques explicit (for example, at Lean.org,
and Productivitypress.com).
In Lean Solutions, Womack and Jones provide
intriguing business models based on the extending lean
principles beyond the factory walls. When you read it,
you'll find yourself wishing for these models to come,
and soon, to the provision processes you use. And,
you'll most likely see opportunities for your organiza-
tion to bring the benefits of lean thinking and lean prin-
ciples all the way through your business processes to
benefit all your stakeholders.
Reviewed by David Mann, who supports lean implemen-
tation in enterprise and manufacturing processes at
Steelcase, Inc., in Grand Rapids, MI, and is the author of
Creating a Lean Culture (2005).
© 2006 AME® For information on reprints, contact:
Association for Manufacturing Excellence
www.ame.org
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