Lean Thinking cover art

Lean Thinking

Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, 2nd Ed

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options
Buy Now for £12.69

Buy Now for £12.69

About this listen

 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.©1996, 2003 James Womack and Daniel Jones; (P)2003 Simon & Schuster Inc. All Rights Reserved. AUDIOWORKS is an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster Inc. Career Success Decision-Making & Problem Solving Diets, Nutrition & Healthy Eating Fitness, Diet & Nutrition Forecasting & Strategic Planning Management Management & Leadership Weight Loss & Weight Control
All stars
Most relevant
very useful. It is a view of a business management system that Toyota used to organize its business to produce distinct products in exchange for reducing manufacturing and garbage losses.

very useful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This was my first audio book. Given the need for continuous concentration on such a subject I often found myself rewinding to help my understanding.
I am new to SIG Sigma and trying to understand how to apply it in a hotel industry and so the continuous reference to traditional manufacturing type industries was unhelpful in try to envisage how best to apply in a hotel industry
Hope that is helpful

What about service industries?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I guess it's a good introduction to Lean, but I found it quite repetitive. I'd have appreciated less preaching about how awesome it is and how great the benefits will surely be and more concrete examples and answers to the harder questions.

For example, the move from mass production to flow and pull are both somewhat intuitive and very much not intuitive. Why not give some actual numbers on value streams for a real (or at least realistic) company making the transition? That would allow to not only get the main idea, but to also see it's challenges and maybe get some intuition on when this makes sense and when it doesn't.

Good introduction, could be better

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Struggled to get through it. Not enough information on how to and examples and advice are too high level and repetitive.

Repetitive and monotone

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I am very much an admirer of James Womacks work. having read this before I got the audio book to brush up. James Woman should not have narrated it himself. He is unfortunately monotonous to listen to.

Great book but someone else should have narrated

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews