About the Book -- Strategic Excellence in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Industries

Thank you so much for your interest in the new book! I've received a lot of great questions about it so I decided to post some information that should answer most of the questions. I hope this is helpful.

About the Authors

Joshua Plenert?is a licensed professional engineer and is currently serving as a Regional Manager for an Engineering and Architectural firm where he has played a major role in the development of two branch offices. Joshua’s educational background consists of a BS in Civil Engineering, an MS in Structural Engineering, and an MBA. He has worked in various aspects of the AEC industry for more than 14 years. His construction experience includes more than 8 years of experience working in all phases of construction, construction management, facilities management, and project management. His engineering experience includes nearly 6 years of structural engineering, project management, engineering management, and business development. Joshua has also enjoyed teaching engineering courses as an adjunct professor.

Dr. Gerhard Plenert, former director of executive education at the Shingo Institute, has more than 25 years of professional experience in organizational transformations helping companies and government agencies strive for enterprise excellence by utilizing the Shingo Model to drive cultural transformations. Dr. Plenert is an internationally recognized expert in supply chain management; Lean/Six Sigma; IT; quality and productivity tools; and in working with leading-edge planning and scheduling methods. He has literally “written the book” on leading-edge supply chain management concepts, such as finite capacity scheduling, advanced planning and scheduling, and world-class management.

His experience includes significant initiatives with Genentech, Johnson & Johnson, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Shell, Aramco, Sony, Cisco, Microsoft, Seagate, NCR Corporation, Ritz-Carlton, the US Air Force, and numerous other branches of the US Department of Defense. Additionally, Dr. Plenert has served as a consultant to major manufacturing and distribution companies, such as Hewlett-Packard, Black & Decker, Raytheon, Motorola, Applied Magnetics, Toyota, AT&T, IBM, and Kraft Foods. He has also been considered a corporate “guru” on supply chain management for Wipro, AMS, and Infosys, and a Lean/Six Sigma “guru” for the US Air Force and various consulting companies.

With 14 years of academic experience, Dr. Plenert has published over 150 articles and 22 books on Lean, supply chain strategy, operations management and planning. He has written MBA textbooks and operations planning books for the United Nations. Dr. Plenert’s ideas and publications have been endorsed by people like Steven Covey and companies such as Motorola, AT&T, Black & Decker, and FedEx. His publications are viewable at www.gerhardplenert.com .

Dr. Plenert previously served as a tenured full professor at California State University, Chico; a professor at BYU, BYU–Hawaii, University of Malaysia, University of San Diego; and has been a visiting professor at numerous universities all over the world. He earned degrees in math, physics, and German; and he holds an MBA, MA in international studies, and PhD in resource economics (oil and gas) and operations management. Dr. Plenert continues to serve as a Shingo examiner and as an Adjunct Faculty member for several universities.

About the Book

Strategic Excellence is not achieved by luck or through a management team wishing it into existence.?It is developed through the intelligent and deliberate efforts of inspired leaders.?This book details a strategic planning and management approach that will result in an effective, agile, executable, and sustainable strategy.?

An effective strategy is one that is based in a deep understanding of current conditions and an inspired vision of the organization’s future potential.?It develops metrics that drive results-oriented performance and promotes a culture of ideal behaviors.?It cascades the strategy down to all levels resulting in an organization aligned with strategic objectives where each individual has a clear line-of-sight from his or her actions and how they connect to the overall mission of the organization.?

An agile strategy is one that has been designed to respond to changing conditions through a culture of problem solving and strategic thinking.?It employs a systems approach to solving the root-cause of problems and developing solutions that simplify operations and remove waste.?It applies Lean and Six Sigma tools along with the Toyota Production System cultural thinking paradigm to empower each individual with the ability to solve problems at the source resulting in an engaging culture of continuous improvement.??

An executable strategy is one that everyone throughout the organization understands and they know how they fit into its successful achievement. It is driven and sustained by everyone, from top management, to the engineers, and down to the employees on the construction site.?

A sustainable strategy is one that is carefully partnered with a thriving and vibrant culture in order to create organization-wide ownership of strategic initiatives.?It fosters an exciting culture of strategic thinking and continuous improvement by employing the Shingo Guiding Principles developed by the Shingo Institute and resulting in long-term advances rather than short-term improvement events.??

Strategic Excellence is created by design.?It is founded in a thriving culture, guided by correct principles, empowered through ideal Shingo Principle based behaviors, and will result in long-term sustainable improvements.?It turns wishful thinking into a realized vision.?It converts a complaining culture into one that is based on effective problem solving.?It solves common challenges resulting in an uncommon competitive advantage and will produce a level of performance that will render the competition irrelevant.?

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Key Features

• Uniquely applies cutting-edge strategic planning and management practices from various industries to the AEC industry.
• Applies Shingo principles and Lean Six Sigma tools to the strategic planning and management process.
• Incorporates organizational culture and employee engagement into the strategic planning and management process to enhance organization-wide joint ownership of the strategy.
• Develops a culture of strategic thinking, problem solving, and continuous improvement that builds agility into the strategy so that organizations can easily respond to changing conditions.

Link to Amazon

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