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Jan.
27, 2003 |
Better Business Through "Lean Management"
By embracing "lean management" principles
and practices, companies can weather tough economic times, says
M.L. "Bob" Emiliani, president of the Center for Lean
Business Management (CLBM), which advocates the practice as a
better way to run a business. Emiliani is a clinical professor
at Rensselaer at Hartford.
 In
a new book, Better Thinking, Better Results: Using the Power
of Lean as a Total Business Solution (The CLBM, 2003), Emiliani
and his colleagues detail the findings from an eight-year study
of the Wiremold Company in West Hartford, Conn. By adopting lean
management principles, Wiremold successfully lowered its costs,
responded quickly to market conditions, and improved its relations
with its key stakeholders, by adopting a lean management system.
Lean management, according to the CLBM, is the
practice of eliminating all forms of waste within a company and
creating value for the customer by using a single management system.
It evolved out of a set of concepts developed by U.S. and Japanese
businessmen in the early- to mid-1900s.
"The leadership lessons described in Better
Thinking, Better Results can really help any CEO or executive
looking to improve the economic and social conditions of his or
her company," said Emiliani, who is a clinical professor
of management in Rensselaer's Lally School of Management and Technology.
"The executive team at Wiremold took a sleepy little business
and turned it around using lean management principles, achieving
stunning financial and non-financial results."
David Stec, vice president of the CLBM, and Lawrence
Grasso and James Stodder, professors in Rensselaer's Lally School,
also contributed to the book.
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