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.
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.
