Product Description

When James Womack, Daniel Jones, and Daniel Roos wrote THE MACHINE THAT CHANGED THE WORLD in 1990, Japanese automakers, and Toyota in particular, were making a strong showing by applying the principles of lean production. However, the full power of lean principles was unproven, and they had not been applied outside of the auto industry. Today, the power of lean production has been conclusively proved by Toyota's unparalleled success, and the concepts have been widely applied in many industries. Based on MIT's pioneering global study of industrial competition, THE MACHINE THAT CHANGED THE WORLD offers a groundbreaking analysis of the entire lean business system, including product development, supplier management, sales, service, and production - an analysis even more relevant today as GM and Ford struggle to survive and a wide range of British abd American companies embrace lean production. A new Foreword by the authors brings the story up to date and details how their predictions were right. As a result, this reissue of a classic is as insightful and instructive today as when it was first published.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10932 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

About the Author
James P. Womack is Principal Research Scientist in the Japan Programme at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of the Transitions Group, a consulting firm based in the USA. Daniel T. Jones is a Professor at the Cardiff Business School and has acted as consultant to a wide and international range of companies operating in Europe. He lives in Hereford.

Customer Reviews

A prophetic analysis of a complex industry!
A very readable and well researched book that explains how the automotive industry has developed from a 'craft industry', through 'mass production', into the 'lean enterprises' that will dominate the industry of the future.
The authors explain the different management philosophies at each stage of development, and explore how these have transformed the lifes and expecations of the workforce and consumers in this global industry. They conclude with a prophetic vision of the future, highlighting the need for the major players to be transformed into 'lean enterprises' as a pre-condition for surival.
Essential reading for anybody in the automotive sector or with an interest in the social impact different management techniques and philosophies.

Lean foundations
This book contains all the seeds of the Lean Production Ideas. A must for the serious Lean Practitioner. This is the most influential book on the subject. However it needs a great deal of study and deep understanding but it's worth it for the insight and Lean foundations it provides.

Becoming Lean and Mean!
Lean production (now frequently called Lean manufacturing) has melded into several industries here in the United States, but back when this book was written, it was just catching on. I read the book in 2000. Many of the concepts are still worthwhile in this book, both for the historical significance as well as the lean ideas presented.

The Machine that Changed the World is a fascinating book that teaches what the Japanese learned and how to apply their ideas to the US auto market. Competition is always tough, but these tools provides a competitive advantage to those companies who embrace them and make them part of doing business. Not all ideas are applicable to every application, but there are plenty of diamonds to be farmed here.

Well trained employees, a commitment to excellence by everyone (from the janitor to the CEO), teamwork, flexibility of skill sets, and learning lessons from successes and failures are all important elements of lean manufacturing. Setting up manufacturing lines efficiently, working closely with suppliers, line smoothing, encouraging innovative and cost saving suggestions and much more are also critical lean concepts.

Lean manufacturing doesn't happen overnight and a company and its employees must be diligent in their efforts to put high quality products at reasonable prices out the door.

The Machine that Changed the World is highly rated by many people and should be. It has timeless ideas to produce higher quality products and recommends never being completely satisfied. Well written and researched, this is a top notch book!

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