No production is perfect. Waste always creeps into the processes, makes them slow, sluggish and expensive. Parts and material pile up in the warehouse, production takes place in unnecessarily large batches, transport is taking time, employees wait unproductively for their next task or products ship too late. The result is high production costs and disappointed customers.

The Lean movement has set itself the goal of uncovering waste, question it and eliminate it.

This book will explain in a simple and comprehensive way the Lean principles as well as the practical tools to make production processes as lean and value-added as possible. Because we all love stories, each method is entertainingly wrapped in an illustrated story. In this book, a barista who has to run marathon distances every day, the cup Tim struggles with overproduction and the LeanClean Inc. counts on your support to trim the vacuum cleaner production to maximum value creation with value stream mapping, spaghetti diagram, 5S or Kanban. For each topic, you will find our practical tips. They are the lessons learned from our Lean projects over the past 20 years in many countries. They will help you to implement your Lean initiatives even more effectively and successfully.

Prof. Dr. Roman Hänggi is a Professor for Production Management and Industry 4.0. He has gained his rich lean experience at all hierarchical levels during 25 years in industrial companies in Europe, USA and Asia. The constant development of Lean still drives him every day.

André Fimpel is a Lean enthusiast who has been on a worldwide mission of "maximum value creation" for about 20 years. No matter whether production of sports cars, shoes or machinery; Germany, USA or Brazil. Waste in all industries and countries are his specialty.

Roland Siegenthaler explains the world in simple pictures and stories. He is a drawing electrical engineer who has been committed for 15 years to entertaining and effective communication in innovation and change projects.