You've heard of Lean and you are intrigued. You are acquainted with the basic Lean tools and concepts such as Kaizen, the 8 wastes, root cause analysis, and process maps - but what are the next steps? The purpose of this guide is to help you get off to a good start on your Lean journey, including:

• Considering Lean. You first must consider if Lean is the right journey for you.
• Become aware of what a Lean organization looks like. Stephen Covey says "Begin with the end in mind." Learning about Lean and the experiences of others and what they have accomplished puts you in a better position to begin the journey.
• The strategy for implementing Lean at home. Once you have learned about Lean you and decide it is the suitable journey for you, then you are ready to begin the Lean journey in your own organization.
• Building a Lean culture. Lean is not just collection of tools. It is a mindset and way of working. Lean will have its greatest impact when that mindset pervades the organization.
• Building support for Lean. Change is often hard for employees. Change is sometimes for employees so thought must be given on how to make the transition easier.

• Publication date: January 2014
• Authors: Shayne Kavanagh, Jeff Cole, and Harry Kenworthy