Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #57381 in Books
• Published on: 1999-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Spiral-bound
• 102 pages

Synopsis
Much more important, these simple maps - often drawn on scrap paper - showed where steps could be eliminated, flows smoothed, and pull systems introduced in order to create a truly lean value stream for each product family. In 1998 John teamed with Mike Rother of the University of Michigan to write down Toyota's mapping methodology for the first time in "Learning to See". This simple tool makes it possible for you to see through the clutter of a complex plant.You'll soon be able to identify all of the processing steps along the path from raw materials to finished goods for each product and all of the information flows going back from the customer through the plant and upstream to suppliers. With this knowledge in hand it is much easier to envision a 'future state' for each product family in which wasteful actions are eliminated and production can be pulled smoothly ahead by the customer. In plain language and with detailed drawings, this workbook explains everything you will need to know to create accurate current-state and future-state maps for each of your product families and then to turn the current state into the future state rapidly and sustainably.In "Learning to See" you will find: a foreword by Jim Womack and Dan Jones explaining the need for this tool; an introduction by Mike Rother and John Shook describing how they discovered the mapping tool in their study of Toyota; guidance on identifying your product families; a detailed explanation of how to draw a current-state map; a practice case permitting you to draw a current-state map on your own, with feedback from Mike and John in the appendix on how you did; a detailed explanation of how to draw a future-state map; and, a second practice case permitting you to draw a future-state map, with 'the answer' provided in the appendix.

You will also find: guidance on how to designate a manager for each value stream; an advice on breaking implementation into easy steps; and, an explanation of how to use the yearly value stream plan to guide each product family through successive future states. More than 50,000 copies of "Learning to See" have been sold in the past two years. Readers from across the world report that value stream mapping has been an invaluable tool to start their lean transformation and to make the best use of kaizen events.

Customer Reviews

Open your eyes with this great book
Many other authors make this stuff look like black magic.

Not so for Rother and Shook - they've produced an excellent text that quite rightly won the Shingo prize. The simple presentation and straigtforward explanation is a credit to the authors, especially since some of the techniques used are actually quite involved.

It's even spiral bound, so it stays open on the desk - almost as if they intended it to be used rather than kept on a shelf!

Buy it. Buy it now.

Excellent Practical Guide
"Learning to See" is a very straightforward and practical guide to Value Stream Mapping. It is the original book on the topic and I haven't seen a better one.It guides you through the process in a very simple and clear manner. It is pretty much essential reading if you are involved in implementing lean in the workplace - along with the other books in the series - Making Materials Flow, Creating Level Pull etc. They are pricey books but worth it for the hands-on lean practitioner.