Written by Getting Home by Lynn McCartney and Zack Rosenburg is a wonderful book that tells the story of a very special lean journey. After Hurricane Katrina had left thousands homeless, the authors put their careers on hold to spend a year in New Orleans helping as many as they could. Five years later, they were still at it, and their new organization, SBP, had re-housed over 400 families. The authors, however, felt that things were moving too slowly, and wondered how they could speed up the process of getting people home. By serendipity, they were connected with the Toyota Production System Support Center (TSSC), and over the ensuing months, they and their staff learned how to apply TPS principles to their work processes. Today, the organization is a global model for disaster recovery efficiency, and with the help of thousands of volunteers, has rebuilt homes for more than 1660 families in disaster-struck areas across the US.
Here’s an edited version of the father-son chat between Jacob and Claude Stoller about their take on the book. Jacob is the author of Lean CEO, and his father used to run an organization in San Francisco that enlisted graduate architecture students in providing free planning and advocacy services for low-income families.
Read their discussion at: https://www.lean.org/LeanPost/Posting.cfm?LeanPostId=1053