Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Revised and Updated

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Rank: 941

Expanded, updated, and more relevant than ever, 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, and the strategic system of Welch and GE. It is based on the Toyota (lean) model, which combines operational excellence with value-based strategies to produce steady growth through a wide range of economic conditions.

In contrast with the crash-and-burn performance of companies trumpeted by business gurus in the 1990s, the firms profiled in Lean Thinking -- from tiny Lantech to midsized Wiremold to niche producer Porsche to gigantic Pratt & Whitney -- have kept on keeping on, largely unnoticed, along a steady upward path through the market turbulence and crushed dreams of the early twenty-first century.

Meanwhile, the leader in lean thinking -- Toyota -- has set its sights on leadership of the global motor vehicle industry in this decade.

Instead of constantly reinventing business models, lean thinkers go back to basics by asking what the customer really perceives as value. (It's often not at all what existing organizations and assets would suggest.) The next step is to line up value-creating activities for a specific product along a value stream while eliminating activities (usually the majority) that don't add value.

Then the lean thinker creates 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, the lean thinker speeds up the cycle of improvement in pursuit of perfection. The first part of this book describes each of these concepts and makes them come alive with striking examples.

Lean Thinking clearly demonstrates that these simple ideas 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. 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.

Even those readers who believe they have embraced lean thinking will discover in Part III that another dramatic leap is possible by creating an extended lean enterprise for each of their product families that tightly links value-creating activities from raw materials to customer.

In Part IV, an epilogue to the original edition, the story of lean thinking is brought up-to-date with an enhanced action plan based on the experiences of a range of lean firms since the original publication of Lean Thinking.

Lean Thinking does not provide a new management "program" for the one-minute manager.

Instead, it offers a new method of thinking, of being, and, above all, of doing for the serious long-term manager -- a method that is changing the world.

About the Author

Womack is founder and president of the Lean Enterprise Institute (www.lean.org), a nonprofit education and research organization based in Brookline, Massachusetts, dedicated to the spread of lean thinking.

Jones is founder and chairman of the Lean Enterprise Academy in the U.K.

(www.leanuk.org), a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Lean Enterprise Institute and pursuing the same objectives in English-speaking Europe.

Editorials

	From Publishers Weekly
	There's a missionary zeal to this book for corporate managers: it wants to convert companies the world over to the streamlined production process pioneered by Toyota after WWII. Womack and Jones chronicled Toyota's concept... read full editorial
	From AudioFile
	An expanded version of a well-known guide that apparently has a cult following, this audio provides a road map on how to squeeze the most value from a product idea, from concept and manufacturing to product launch... read full editorial
	Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
	Chapter 1 Value A House or a Hassle-Free Experience? Doyle Wilson of Austin, Texas, had been building homes for fifteen years before he got serious about quality. "In October of 1991 I just got disgusted. Such a large... read full editorial

Customer Reviews

	Good Book for Introduction to Lean!..need application book
	(Indianapolis, IN United States) April 20, 2002 - 5.0/5 stars
	This book was definately informative. Lean thinking is revolutionary in approach. The text reviews a lot of success stories. Would like to see another text that gets more into application, answering questions like...How... read full review
	Playing with Fire
	(New Englnd) June 1, 2001 - 4.0/5 stars
	The principals in this book are sound. However, top management must make the full commitment and follow the principals as defined. Trying to shortcut the process will have detrimental results if not disastrous. The concepts... read full review
	Great Ideas, But Now How?
	(Halifax and Toronto, Canada) November 13, 2001 - 3.0/5 stars
	Lean Thinking does an excellent job of detailing what is wrong with the standard business processes in North America and pretty much the rest of the world. The authors also do a very good job of introducing (I hadn't... read full review

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