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The Lean Post / Articles / The Lean Manager (Chapter 1)

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Line Management

The Lean Manager (Chapter 1)

By Freddy Ballé and Michael Ballé

July 29, 2009

The Lean ManagerChapter OneCUSTOMERS FIRST“He’s closing the plant!”Closing the plant meant losing his job. Losing his job meant losing Malancourt. Losing Malancourt didn’t bear thinking about.Driving blindly through the heavy spring rain, Andrew Ward rehearsed how he was going to break the news to his wife. He had dreaded this moment since taking on the job three years ago, but as months and then years had gone by, the fear had receded. Now the monster had suddenly sprung, showing him up for the failure he was.Read all of Chapter One of The Lean Manager.

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The Lean Manager

Chapter One
CUSTOMERS FIRST

“He’s closing the plant!”

Closing the plant meant losing his job. Losing his job meant losing Malancourt. Losing Malancourt didn’t bear thinking about.

Driving blindly through the heavy spring rain, Andrew Ward rehearsed how he was going to break the news to his wife. He had dreaded this moment since taking on the job three years ago, but as months and then years had gone by, the fear had receded. Now the monster had suddenly sprung, showing him up for the failure he was.

Read all of Chapter One of The Lean Manager.

FacebookTweetLinkedInEmailPrintComment

Written by:

Freddy Ballé|
Michael Ballé

About Michael Ballé

Michael Ballé is co-author of The Gold Mine, a best-selling business novel of lean turnaround, and recently The Lean Manager, a novel of lean transformation, both published by the Lean Enterprise Institute. For the past 25 years, he has studied lean transformation and helped companies develop a lean culture. He is…

Read more about Michael Ballé

About Freddy Ballé

Freddy Ballé started visiting Toyota plants in Japan in the mid-1970s while head of product planning and later manufacturing engineering at Renault, where he worked for 30 years. Upon leaving Renault, he pioneered the full lean system implementation at Valeo as Technical Vice President, then at Sommer-Allibert as CEO, and later at Faurecia as Technical Vice President. With his son, Michael, he has founded ESG Consultants to advise CEOs and senior executives on making lean transformations as described in The Lean Manager.

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