Bob Emiliani

Professor, engineer, author, executive trainer

Professor M.L. “Bob” Emiliani is an engineer, researcher, author, historian of progressive management, educational reformer, and executive trainer. A long-time Toyota Production System (TPS)/lean practitioner he was the first to focus on lean leadership as an area of scholarly study. Prior to joining academia, he worked in industry for 15 years in engineering (R&D, new product development) and operations, including implementing TPS (manufacturing and supply chain). Emiliani is the author or co-author of 19 books, 48 peer-reviewed papers, and 540+ blog posts on lean leadership, management, organizational development, supply chain, materials engineering, and more. Emiliani has bachelor’s and master’s degrees and a Ph.D. in engineering.

 

Thu, 10/05/2017 - 12:01
College Productivity Teachers and students get an ‘F’ for critical thinking
Thu, 04/09/2015 - 15:42
In a recent article in the Dec. 28, 2014, issue of The Wall Street Journal, “Colleges Need a Business Productivity Audit,” authors Frank Mussano and Robert Iosue argue that colleges should be audited, as business are, “to identify unprofitable…
Imaginary Customers University professors must accept the duty to serve students
Mon, 03/09/2015 - 11:34
Most professors and many administrators have great difficulty accepting the idea of students as customers. Some put great effort into finding ways to describe students as anything but customers, preferring such terms as “partners,” “empowered…
The Lean Refinery A handy analogy to understanding the distillation of lean information
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 09:13
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…
Leading Without Respect That’s not lean
Wed, 10/22/2014 - 14:42
Have the leading figures in the lean community walked the “Respect for People” talk? Not in my view. Most of these leaders have only recently begun to understand and embrace the “Respect for People” principle. Although there are many dimensions to…
Two Paths to Lean Leadership The path to failure and the path to success
Tue, 09/16/2014 - 12:08
There are only two paths to lean leadership that people can take. One path, based on traditional human resource development models, nearly always results in failure. The second path nearly always results in success, but precious few leaders are…
Focus on Flow How to tell the difference between real lean and fake lean
Wed, 09/10/2014 - 00:00
The lean community continues to face a problem that hurts efforts to advance progressive lean management: It is the great difficulty in clearly separating and effectively communicating the difference between real lean and fake lean, i.e., lean…
What It Takes to Succeed With Lean Fundamentals first, then mastery
Tue, 03/04/2014 - 12:01
As an engineer, my natural tendency is to look at things from the perspective of how something failed rather than why it worked (though in my writings about lean, I do both). However, the factors that cause failure are merely the antithesis of why…
Lean Heresy Lean management can’t function properly if corporate policy drives overproduction
Wed, 02/26/2014 - 16:49
Let’s get rid of value stream maps. I can hear it now: “Why would you say such a thing? Value stream maps are great. We can’t see waste without them.” Precisely. Value stream maps have developed an outsized importance in relation to other types of…