This bestselling business classic by two internationally renowned management analysts describes a business system for the twenty-first century that supersedes:
The mass production system of Ford
The financial control system of Sloan
The strategic system of Welch
and GE
It is based on the Toyota
's (lean) model, which combines operational excellence
with value-based strategies
to produce steady growth through a wide range of economic conditions.
Instead of constantly reinventing business models, lean thinkers go back to basics by:
First, asking what the customer really perceives as 'value'
. (It's often not at all what existing organizations and assets would suggest.)
Next, lining up value-creating activities for a specific product along a value stream while eliminating activities (usually the majority) that don't add value.
And then, creating a flow condition
in which the design and the product advance smoothly and rapidly at the pull of the customer
(rather than the push of the producer
).
Finally, as flow
and pull
are implemented, speeding up the cycle of improvement in pursuit of perfection
.
Lean Thinking is divided into two parts:
PART I of this book describes each of these concepts and makes them come alive with striking examples.
PART II provides a step-by-step action plan, based on in-depth studies of more than fifty lean companies in a wide range of industries across the world.
The authors have done a great job to clearly demonstrate that these simple ideas and action plan can breathe new life into any company in any industry in any country. But most managers need guidance on how to make the lean leap in their firm.
About the authors
James P. Womack was the research director of the International Motor Vehicle Program (IMVP) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT
) in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is the founder and chairman of the Lean Enterprise Institute, a nonprofit institution for the dissemination and exploration of the Lean thinking with the aim of his further development of the Lean Enterprise.
Daniel T. Jones is an English author and researcher. He won the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence
in the Research and Professional Publication category multiple times for his books: The Machine that Changed the World, Lean Thinking and Seeing the Whole: Mapping the Extended Value Stream.
Jones, along with Womack, researched the automotive industry. Their research work with Daniel Roos, a professor at MIT
on the automotive industry, found a three-to-one productivity difference between Japanese and American factories. Their research was published as the book The Machine that Changed the World in 1991. (Source: Wikipedia)
This bestselling business classic by two internationally renowned management analysts describes a business system for the twenty-first century that supersedes:
The mass production system of Ford
The financial control system of Sloan
The strategic system of Welch
and GE
It is based on the Toyota
's (lean) model, which combines operational excellence
with value-based strategies
to produce steady growth through a wide range of economic conditions.
Instead of constantly reinventing business models, lean thinkers go back to basics by:
First, asking what the customer really perceives as 'value'
. (It's often not at all what existing organizations and assets would suggest.)
Next, lining up value-creating activities for a specific product along a value stream while eliminating activities (usually the majority) that don't add value.
And then, creating a flow condition
in which the design and the product advance smoothly and rapidly at the pull of the customer
(rather than the push of the producer
).
Finally, as flow
and pull
are implemented, speeding up the cycle of improvement in pursuit of perfection
.
Lean Thinking is divided into two parts:
PART I of this book describes each of these concepts and makes them come alive with striking examples.
PART II provides a step-by-step action plan, based on in-depth studies of more than fifty lean companies in a wide range of industries across the world.
The authors have done a great job to clearly demonstrate that these simple ideas and action plan can breathe new life into any company in any industry in any country. But most managers need guidance on how to make the lean leap in their firm.
About the authors
James P. Womack was the research director of the International Motor Vehicle Program (IMVP) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT
) in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is the founder and chairman of the Lean Enterprise Institute, a nonprofit institution for the dissemination and exploration of the Lean thinking with the aim of his further development of the Lean Enterprise.
Daniel T. Jones is an English author and researcher. He won the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence
in the Research and Professional Publication category multiple times for his books: The Machine that Changed the World, Lean Thinking and Seeing the Whole: Mapping the Extended Value Stream.
Jones, along with Womack, researched the automotive industry. Their research work with Daniel Roos, a professor at MIT
on the automotive industry, found a three-to-one productivity difference between Japanese and American factories. Their research was published as the book The Machine that Changed the World in 1991. (Source: Wikipedia)