Managing Lean Projects

Kliem defines Lean as a revolutionary way of changing how a private or public organization does business, whether at the strategic or operational levels. Reworking priorities, it places the customer in the forefront, changing how people interact as much as how materials are acquired, processed, and delivered. He cites the significant role project management plays as a means to obtain ownership and commitment among everyone at all levels of an organization and to open everyone’s vision and perceptions regarding why an organization exists in the first place. The book aims to help project professionals apply and leverage the power of their field to help them lead not just manage their Lean projects to success and to the benefit of their organization and the people who work in it. Ultimately, a Lean project should demonstrate improvements in efficiency and effectiveness, and project management is the best way to achieve such results. Eight chapters are: the long road to lean; what is lean?; overview of project management fundamentals; fundamental lean concepts, tools, and techniques; lean and project management processes; lean project management using the PDCA cycle; project management for a lean project using DMAIC; ten final thoughts about lean. Annotation c2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Ralph L. Kliem, PMP, CBCP, President of LeanPM, LLC, has more than 30 years of experience with Fortune 500 firms, including Safeco Insurance Companies and The Boeing Company. As a senior project manager with The Boeing Company, he managed several process improvement, maturity model, and Lean projects. Ralph was the project manager for the companywide re-engineering of The Boeing Company’s policies and procedures process during and after the merger with McDonnell Douglas. He was also the project manager for information technology projects that supported the 787 and P8A programs. Ralph was the project manager for a Lean initiative that improved the business continuity processes supporting several of the major airplane programs such as the 747, 767, 777, and 787, and major business units and programs within The Boeing Company.

Ralph teaches PMP certification courses and conducts project management seminars and workshops. He is an adjunct faculty member of City University and a former member of Seattle Pacific University in Seattle, Washington. He is the author or coauthor of more than 15 books and 300 articles with leading business and information technology publications.