A contingent approach to Lean Thinking.

One of the problems we see in many (or even most) Lean Thinking texts is the assumption that you work in a high volume, component based manufacturing supplier to the automotive industry. In reality few of us do….and this puts into question many of the conclusions of these texts. Professor Peter Hines and Donna Samuel illustrate the point, and what might be done about with a lean purchasing based case study from the health sector.  Click here to dowload article.

The paper describes an Issue-Driven approach to Strategy Formation that has been developed over many years working with a variety of businesses, both large and small, in several industry types, both manufacturing and service.

Avoiding the trap of ‘best practice’ – design a people solution that suits you.

Since the early 90’s the power of Lean Thinking has been widely recognised, but still some businesses fail to implement it properly. Professor Peter Hines, Director of the Lean Enterprise Research Centre at Cardiff Business School, and Chairman of S A Partners, explains his approach.