From the Editor

Welcome to the first Lean CEO newsletter! As most of your know, Lean CEO is taking the place of Superfactory, therefore this newsletter is replacing the Superfactory newsletter we've been publishing every month for the past decade.

The change from Superfactory to Lean CEO reflects the broadening of our focus from lean manufacturing to lean leadership in any type of organization. Superfactory will continue to exist for several more months but all new content will go onto the Lean CEO website.

You'll notice that the design of the Lean CEO newsletter is simpler, crisper, and cleaner than the old Superfactory newsletter. Content is arranged based on user data we analyzed in terms of viewing priority.

I invite you to take a look at the new Lean CEO website, where you'll find articles, books, photos, videos, events, and training resources. All of the articles have moved over from Superfactory and we've added a Contributors page to recognize those that have contributed high quality lean leadership content. We will be adding many more features over the upcoming months.

- Kevin Meyer

Featured Article

Lean IT: Enabling and Sustaining Your Lean Transformation

By Steve Bell

Quality information and effective information systems are vital to the success of the modern enterprise. But the magnitude of IT spending on ill-conceived or poorly implemented IT projects is staggering. And the dire consequences of unstable and inflexible systems, failed projects, and chronic misalignment of IT activities with business strategy are unacceptable—and unsustainable.

The portion of the global economy spent on IT is substantial. For example, banking and finance enterprises in 2008 spent an average of 6.9 percent of their revenue on IT; this figure is a staggering 4.7 percent in health care.1 If you begin with a conservative assumption that just 20 percent of these investments do not add significant value to the customer, the numbers add up quickly. And beyond the direct waste of IT dollars spent that don’t return expected benefits, even more staggering are the consequences of poor-quality information and ineffective information systems on the productivity and general health of each organization, and by extension to the global economy as a whole.

Editor's note: This article is the first chapter of the new book by Steve Bell and Michael Orzen, Lean IT: Enabling and Sustaining Your Lean Transformation.

Read entire article | More Lean CEO articles

Featured Book

Work That Makes Sense

By Gwendolyn Galsworth

Work That Makes Sense is designed to speak directly to the real experts of day-to-day work in any company - front-line associates - showing them what a visual workplace is, why it's important to their daily work, and how to create one themselves. Based on nearly 30 years in the field, author Gwendolyn Galsworth, a foremost authority on workplace visuality, provides value-add associates with a methodology and hundreds of full-color actual visual solutions for converting their own work areas into visual workplaces.

More information | More books

Featured Video

Gemba Academy has released the first three modules of its Gemba Glossary series, with each being a short video definition of a topic with history and an example. Check them out on YouTube:

• 5S
• The Seven Wastes
• Gemba

Gemba Academy has also recently released a new seven video module course on Leader Standard Work as part of its Complete Lean Package. More information.

Key Upcoming Events

Two upcoming events that must be on your calendar:

	Lean Accounting Summit Orlando, Florida 15-16 September 2011 Join more than 500 top-level executives from across the globe for what has become THE catalyst for change in progressive, forward-thinking companies.
	AME Annual Conference Dallas, Texas 24-28 October 2011 The world's largest lean conference, for practitioners by practitioners. Workshops, serminars, and tours of factories and other lean facilities.

Lean CEO maintains a comprehensive list of hundreds of upcoming events and workshops.

Full Lean CEO Events Calendar

Evolving Excellence Blog

Join over 5,000 readers who get their daily dose of blunt manufacturing and business reality by subscribing to the Evolving Excellence blog!

or Subscribe to Evolving Excellence by Email

Recent posts in the Evolving Excellence blog include:

• The Gender Ratio and Chinese Demand for US Treasuries - would you believe the lopsided Chinese gender ratio helps fund the U.S. debt?
• Knowingly Jumping off a Cliff - The postal services of the rest of the world are adjusting to the electronic age - why not the U.S.?
• Brace Yourself St. Peter, Eli's Coming - Reflecting on the passing of Eliyahu Goldratt, author of The Goal.
• Did you hear the one about the bankers, a consultant, and a marketer? - The nonsense that happens when those three groups try to create "brand" value.
• Looting Factories for Fun and Profit - So guess what presidential candidate Mitt Romney used to do...
• The Character of a Weiner - Leadership requires character, period.
• Scrappy? Not Hardly! - Who do you think is the leanest company in American?
• The High Price of Locks - Should we train after we've laid off people, or before?
• What Do You Think? - What are you thinking about? And your employees?
• Humility, Respect and Ignorance - What Jim Tressel of Ohio State can teach us about real leadership... or not.

Forum Discussions

The 7,000 members of the Lean CEO LinkedIn Group are discussing a variety of topics including:

• Is quality really the responsibility of the quality department?
• How can value stream mapping be applied to business process innovation?
• Should leaders focus their efforts on motivation, satisfaction, or engagement?
• Is lean implementation more effective if driven from the top down?
• Why do so many businesses struggle with execution?

Lean News

Lean-oriented news stories from the past month.

• Boeing aims at smooth ramp-up (Flightglobal)
• The Critical Need for Lean Thinking in Healthcare (Xconomy)
• Construction industry looks to lean practices (MLive.com)
• Changing The Game: Elan Snowboard Factory (Transworld)
• Lean Healthcare (St. Louis Public Radio News)
• Hickory Chair adjusts, moves into 2nd century (WRAL.com)
• Lean could help radiology cut waste (CMIO)
• How to Make it in America -- the Lean Way (IndustryWeek)
• Successful strategies for survival (Financial Times)
• The better homes lab (Building.co.uk)