Transitioning to a Lean Enterprise: A Guide for Leaders, Volume III, Roadmap Explorations

conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the core team members in their capacity as principal co-authors of this guide, and are not intended to reflect those of the Lean Aerospace Initiative, the sponsoring companies (individually or as a group), the U.S. Air Force, other federal government agencies, or MIT. The latter are absolved from any errors or shortcomings, for which the principal co-authors of this guide take full responsibility. Volume III of this Guide may be used as an in-depth reference source for acquiring deep knowledge about many of the aspects of transitioning to Lean. Lean Change Agents and Lean Implementation Leaders should find this volume especially valuable in preparing their organizations for the lean transformation and in developing and implementing an Enterprise Level Lean Implementation Plan. The richness and depth of the discussions in this volume should be helpful in charting a course, avoiding pitfalls, and making in-course corrections during implementation. We assume that the reader of Volume III is familiar with the history and general principles of the Lean paradigm that are presented in Volume I, Executive Overview. A review of Volume II, Transition to Lean Roadmap may be helpful prior to launching into Volume III. For those readers most heavily involved in the Lean transformation, all three volumes should be understood and referenced frequently. The following four sections entitled Background, Transition-to-Lean Guide, Guide's Perspective, and Looking Ahead are reproduced from Volume I and II for completeness and for the convenience of those readers beginning with this Volume.