Course 2024-2025 a.y.

• Origins and evolution of the Lean Movement.
• A short history of the Toyota Motor Corporation.
• Waste (Muda), continuous improvement (Kaizen) and organizational learning.
• Lean principles and tools.
• The Lean Transformation Framework.
• The House fo Lean.
• Just-in-time.
• Creating continuous flow (takt, one-piece-flow).
• The pull system (kanban, Deming principle).
• Leveling out workloads (Heijunka).
• Stop to fix problems and quality. Do things right the first time (Jidoka).
• Standardized work as the foundation of continuous improvement.
• Using visual management to monitor performance and surface problems.
• Workplace organization (5S).
• Value Stream Mapping and improvement.
• Problem solving through PDCA: A3 & Kaizen.
• Lean culture, people development and leadership.
• The impact fo lean management systems on operational and financial performance
• Lean SixSigma & LeanAgile.
• Lean Startup.
• Lean, social and green: sustainable lean.

• Describe the genealogy and evolution of Lean Thinking and its relationship with organizational theory and other management practices.
• Understand the antecedents and effects of waste and variability on organizational performance.
• Explain the principles and tools of lean management and its implementation in different management functions, business environments and industries.
• Identify different types of problems in organizations and apply different problem solving methods (A3, Kaizen and Theory-based)
• Distinguish the management attitudes and behaviors that support the implementation of lean thinking.
• Recognize the relationship between lean thinking and the lean startup method.
• Identify critical success factors and barriers in lean implementation.
• Construct the causal chains that lead lean management systems to operational and financial performance improvements.

• Eliminate waste from organizational processes.
• Optimize workplace organization (5S).
• Reduce resource idle time throughquick changeovers (SMED).
• Prevent and/or detect the occurrence of errors and defects through auto-nomation (Jidoka) and technology autonomous management (TPM).
• Reduce undesired variability through workload leveling (heijunka).
• Maximize value flow to customers through just in time (one-piece-flow, pull, kanban supermarket systems).
• Problem solve through A3 and PDCA cycles.
• Design and conduct Kaizen events
• Draw current and future state value stream maps and design value stream improvement plans.
• Use leanagile techiques to develop new products, services and processes.
• Design and conduct rigorous experiments to problem solve.

• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Company visits
• Practical Exercises
• Individual works / Assignments
• Collaborative Works / Assignments
• Interaction/Gamification

The course applies a variety of teaching methods and learning approaches and requires the active participation of students through class pre-work, readings, case discussions and project works. Students attending the course do lean simulations, interact with managers from companies that have successfully undertaken lean transformation processes and develop in-class applications of lean tools. Given the content and didactic methods of the course, class attendance, though not compulsory, is strongly recommended. Lectures and all the other in-class activities take place according to the following analytic program and calendar. All support materials are posted on the web and are accessible on the Bocconi platform. Attending students may sign-up to prepare, individually or in small groups, the in-class simulations and exercises leading the discussion in the relevant learning sessions.

Students qualify as attending students if they attend the majority of the classes both in the first and second half of the course. Attendance are monitored through the Bocconi electronic system. Grading system.

• The final grade is the average of the grades obtained in a written partial and final exam (at the end of the course), covering, respectively, the first and second half of the course. The exams cover only the materials discussed in class and the relative textbook chapters. They include multiple choice questions and problem sets.
• Attending students may complement and improve their grade through distinguished class participation and individual/group assignments and projects suggested by or agreed upon with the instructor during the course. 

Non attending students take an individual, written final exam. It covers the course textbooks and include multiple choice questions and problem sets.

• Materials (classnotes, documents, assignments, case studies, exercises) available on Blackboard.

• M. ROTHER, J. SHOOK, Learning to see. Value Stream Mapping to Create Value and Eliminate Muda, Cambridge, MA,The Lean Enterprise Institute, Cambridge, 1999. 
• A. CAMUFFO, Lean Transformations for Small and Medium Enterprises. Lessons from Italian Businesses, New York, CRC - Productivity Press, 2016 (only chapters 3 and 5).
• J. LIKER, The Toyota Way. 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer, New York, USA, McGraw-Hill, 2004.