Books and their authors can be very influential. They can initiate widespread awareness of a subject and maintain loyal followings long after the publication of their best works. However, when you read books about lean management, or follow influential lean authors, how confident are you that the information being provided is accurate? Do you even ask yourself that question?

Let’s examine what happens when authors write about lean management. The process for refining crude oil provides a useful analogy, but in reverse. In the thermal distillation of a feedstock such as crude oil, all of the products are useful, ranging from the low-molecular-weight petroleum gas that emerges from the top of the distillation column to the super high-molecular-weight bitumen at the bottom. When authors write about lean management, though, some of the product is much more useful than others.

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