Leading Beyond Lean

Three practicing managers with years of experience improving production facilities around the world explain why lean methodology on its own often fails to deliver productivity gains and how a holistic package incorporating safety, employee development, business planning, capital spending, performance management, quality and lean work can together to deliver results.

Improving productivity is the holy grail of every site manager. But while three decades of initiatives from Kaizen through TQM to Lean/Six Sigma have all had an impact, the fact remains that a few companies outperform the others.

This is often because individual change initiatives address only one aspect of a much more complex problem. What is needed is a holistic productivity system that addresses every aspect of production. To implement a productivity system in practice, you need more than TQM, more that Lean. Based on their experience managing and improving production facilities around the world the authors show how there are seven key elements that combine to create a sustainable productivity system.

Leading Beyond Lean explains how these seven elements work together, and how you can set up your own bespoke productivity system, like they did.

As practising managers Østbø, Wetherill and Cattermole have used these techniques and procedures to deliver improvements in both in safety and productivity. Helping their sites to become more economically viable, evolving from 'problem sites' with uncertain futures into vibrant sites that attract reinvestment and growth. They become cleaner, safer and better organised, and therefore more attractive places to work in.

This book will help any company, any site manager, and any production director understand what is needed to set up a lasting productivity system, not in theory, but in practice - and to deliver outstanding results.

Petter Østbø is currently EVP of Production at Yara International and was previously the head of global optimization where he came up with the productivity system and the concept around it. Before joining Yara Petter was a consultant McKinsey.

Robin Cattermole is currently VP Head of Global Planning and Optimization at Yara has held various senior supply chain and production positions. He was the architect of the productivity system and responsible for its global roll out.

Mark Wetherill is an operational manager and lean practitioner with many years' experience in factory management.  As one on the original instigators of the productivity system he supported  its deployment  at Yara sites across the world. He is now head of productivity for Yara's global network of small sites.