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Freedom from Command and Control : Rethinking Management for Lean Service, by John Seddon, applies the Toyota Production System (TPS) to service organizations. It explains how the traditional command-and-control management paradigm of top-down decision making has created high costs and poor service quality -- managers are left detached from their employees and remote from their operations. Seddon demonstrates that a change in management thinking, one from decision making based on activity-related measures (such as budgets, standards, and targets) to purpose-related measures (such as putting customers first and improving services) can help managers reconnect with their operations, see the waste caused by the current organization design, and exploit opportunities for improvement.
This book breaks new ground -- it posits that the service industry is fundamentally different from manufacturing and shows how TPS principles must be transformed for application in service organizations. Through extensive case material, it explains the difference between command and control and systems thinking and illustrates how the latter leads to improved service, better revenues, lower costs, and higher staff morale.
