Summary

What is Lean?
Pure and simple, lean is reducing the time from customer order to manufacturing by eliminating non-value-added waste in the production stream. The ideal of a lean system is one-piece flow, because a lean manufacturer is continuously improving.

Most other books on lean management focus on technical methods and offer a picture of how a lean system should look like. Other books provide snapshots of companies before and after lean was implemented.

This is the first book to provide technical descriptions of successful solutions and performance improvements. It's also the first book to go beyond snapshots and includes powerful first-hand accounts of the complete process of change; its impact on the entire organization; and the rewards and benefits of becoming lean.

At the heart of Becoming Lean are the stories of American manufacturers that have successfully implemented lean methods. The writers offer personalized accounts of their organization's lean transformation. You have a unique opportunity to go inside the implementation process and see what worked, what didn't, and why.

Choice Review

This very readable study provides a balanced overview of lean manufacturing and is an excellent addition to the literature on productivity improvement. The study presents five auto case studies, three nonauto cases, and three general surveys. The 13 contributing authors were involved in the implementation process and describe inside stories of US manufacturers. The study consists of three parts. The first part focuses on the transferability of lean manufacturing operations. The second part contains the collection of case studies on implementing lean manufacturing. These cases describe the process of transforming individual factories, and readers are exposed to a range of plants that experience a variety of problems in their struggle to become lean. The third part focuses on managing the change process, and authors consider general lessons learned about this process. Editor Liker teaches industrial and operations engineering and is the cofounder of the Japan Technology Management Program at the University of Michigan. Overall readability of this work is good. Although some cases are a bit pedestrian, the book is generally free of jargon and the tables and charts are well presented. Chapter-end bibliographies. Recommended for upper-division undergraduate through professional collections. K. J. Constas; Fayetteville State University