Beyond Lean

Book excerpt: This book by Peter Béndek presents a strong case against the current practice of business operations improvement, based on numerous studies from the business world as well as insights from the most prestigious authors of the last fifty years. The author contests the applicability and indeed the relevance of the Toyota Production System and its spin-offs to the Western context, claiming that a revised approach is much better suited to taking our specific cultural conditions into account, while also combining increased transparency, speed, and sustainability of change with a robust value-creating capability. Dr. Béndek argues that this approach can have a far-reaching impact on corporate cultures by offering an all-encompassing learning system, one that provides a more coherent and actionable continuous improvement strategy than conventional approaches. The book offers an important guide to rethinking operations management, both in academia and business practice.