A new book reveals that lean initiatives are more strategic when extended from the supply chain into distribution channels. Value-Driven Channel Strategy: Extending the Lean Approach (ASQ Quality Press, 2005), is based on research from the manufacturing and service industry. Authors Eric Reidenbach and Reg Goeke challenge the conventional supply-chain wisdom of lean thinking, arguing that it can and should be used as much more than a tactical cost-cutting tool.

“Research now shows that much of [lean’s] value resides in the demand chain, which should be the focus of future lean activities at many companies,” says Goeke.

Reidenbach and Goeke provide a template for quantifying the voice of the market and an eight-step process for using the market’s definition of value to enhance organizations’ value-delivery capacity from the production to consumption. The book also includes numerous examples of how lean thinking is more strategic when driven by value and extended into the distribution system.

For more information, visit www.marketvaluesolutions.com.

 …