HR 101 for Lean Organizations

Bill Dempsey is a human resources professional with over forty years of experience, of which his last twenty-five years involved facilitating human resources in Lean organizations, both domestically and internationally. He remembers that at the beginning of his journey into Lean, it was difficult to find good basic resources to assist him in taking traditional HR practices and concepts and putting them in the context of Lean's philosophy and needed culture.

His book is designed to give you the basics and explain the critical role HR will play in the successful implementation of Lean in an organization. He gives you a brief overview of Lean, advises on what he sees as HR's major responsibilities, and then provides you with the basics of what to do, when to do it, and how to do it.

For starters, he believes that you need a general understanding of Lean operations. The book will provide you with a brief history of Lean and its overall concept and philosophy. Once you understand the basics of Lean, he explains what HR functions you need to focus on. Bill takes each function and identifies the actions to be taken and why. Lastly, he will tell you how and provide you with some templates that you can use to provide critical HR administration in your Lean organization.

The following are HR's major focus areas for ensuring Lean's success:

* Guide Lean Culture

* Workforce Communication and Engagement

* Employee Training and Development

* Flexible Workforce