I happened to be at the SME.org website a few minutes ago and saw that they sell the 4 Recommended Readings (books) used to prepare Lean Certification candidates to “sit” for the Bronze level knowledge exam.
They offer these books to SME members at a lower price than they do non-members. You can buy each book separately or get a better deal if you buy the whole package (all 4 books).
If you check out Robert’s Lean Thinking Library, you’ll see that it already has all these books, plus many more that I have personally read and would recommend for ongoing professional development. You’ll also notice that the books come from Amazon.com; not my garage in case you were wondering.
Naturally I was curious about SME pricing vs. Amazon’s prices.
This turned out to be much more difficult than it should have been.
If this handy widget works, you’ll see what I saw at the SME site.
Robert Damelio
OK. I can say with certainty that you should buy from my library site if your goal is to save money, get your books quickly, and mull over my commentary on each book.
I’ll post the precise data soon so that you can check my math. I ‘m still running down some other prices as well from another well known non-profit organization that is focused on Lean.
SME had 3 of the 4 books. Amazon only had 3 of the 4 books from their store. The 4th was available from multiple 3rd parties. Strangely enough, the book missing from SME was Lean Thinking, by Womack. (That is a little like a Church being out of Bibles)
Amazon’s “missing 4th book” was Learning to See. I’ve only seen this sold new by LEI; they publish it and no doubt it is a cash cow for them at $50.00. I’m in the wrong business.
Check this out:
