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Summary: Great Ideas, But Now How?
Review: Lean Thinking does an excellent job of detailing what is wrong with the standard business processes in North America and pretty much the rest of the world. The authors also do a very good job of introducing (I hadn't yet read The Machine that Changed the World) and explaining their ideas to make clear that there is a much better way available to companies.
I have long been a big believer that all employees are valuable resources that are all to often wasted due to 'right sizing' efforts to achieve immediate monetary targets. Lean Thinking has total employee involvement as a basic pillar of the theory.
The business examples they provide are bulletproof, and definitely make the case that what they suggest can be done.
The problems I had with the book had to do with credibly backing up many of the claims the authors make, like " quality always zooms when flow and pull thinking are put in place together." Is there any hard evidence to back up this assertion? No in the book. The authors make many guarantees about eye-popping improvements their theory will bring if it is implemented correctly.
Implementation is where I have the biggest problem with this book. Womack and Jones certainly do a good job of explaining their theory and backing it up with impeccable examples, but it all adds up to another book in which the authors tell you what you HAVE to do, but not how to do it. It is my opinion that made yet another contribution to the Knowing-Doing Gap (Pfeffer and Sutton, HBS Press 2000). The great ideas contained in the book lack any real, concrete action steps for successful implementation and so will rarely be successfully implemented.
It is similar to all of the talk about innovation. Everyone knows that it is important to do it, but few actually do it because they don't know how. It's not as simple as snapping your fingers. How do you actually go about involving all of your employees? I myself would involve the Simplex process (1995, The Power of Innovation, M.S. Basadur), but that's just me. The same logic applies to almost every section of the last third of the book. I kept saying to myself, "Wow, that's easier said than done."
The book leaves it to the reader to essentially make it up for themselves to make lean thinking a reality in their organization.
I realize that it would be impossible to provide a step-by-step action plan that woud fit any company or situation, but the authors could have done more than offer "Find a change agent." Gee, thanks for the tip! By the end of the book I realized why the implementation side of the book was so thin - the book is a marketing tool for the authors and their associates. Near the end of the book the reader is told to get a sensei, and hey, there happen to be alot of them in Japan you can hire! Also, we, the authors, do speaking engagements if you want to hire us!
The book is definitely a worthwhile read, as it does open the eyes to the reader of a better way of operating, how far away we currently are from it, and how we are all affected by it.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Top-Level Book, Good Explanation of Lean Principles
Review: Lean Thinking has its strengths. The authors do a good job of explaining the principles behind lean manufacturing and show good data from varied case studies to convey the value in implementing lean manufacturing. They make a strong case that these principles can reduce waste and costs, reduce lead times, and improve quality and resource utilization. This book is not a practical guide, however. I found it to be somewhat of a "warm and fuzzy" overview aimed at top execs and business strategists as opposed to plant, production, and manufacturing managers. The details of certain key roadblocks aren't addressed, for example: 1. Across the board firings of managers who oppose lean principles. Not as easy as it sounds. 2. Vastly improving changeover times and rearranging big machinery without a generous budget. 3. Making radical changes on your shop floor despite heavy production demands. 4. Dealing with a union that is not willing to concede the initial layoff without a massive war, despite a company crises. There are many others. One thing that I got a kick out of - when Japanese consultants were called in to implement lean changes in a plant, they began taking machinery apart and moving it themselves. At many plants I've seen, if a foreign consultant were to do that, he'd probably be shot before he made it out of the parking lot. Though the authors are self-admitedly theorists and the book lacks a lot of "nuts and bolts" detail, they do a good job of teaching the principles and laying out the results.
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Summary: USE LEARN THINKING TO FIND 2,000 PERCENT SOLUTIONS
Review: My sister was fortunate last week to visit the Pratt & Whitney plant described in Lean Thinking. She was in awe of the changes they made, their ability to integrate kaizen for five years into the way they run the business and the comparison between the Chaku Chaku line (the new grinding machines and flow) and the older Boehm machines. As she told me about it, the book came to life. These stories are real and lean thinking does make a difference. Lining up the value creating activities into a value stream focusing on what the customer really wants has many benefits. One that Lean Thinking approaches in described in "The 2,000 Percent Solution" by Mitchell, Coles and Metz as the Ideal or Theoretical Best Practice. This is one of the steps in The Master Eight-Step Problem Solving Process described in their book. It allows you to think about the best way to do a task or reach a goal, with no resource constraints or old baggage, knowing what you know now. People report that once they develop their Ideal Best Practice, they can find a way to get there, rapidly, with greater benefits and at less cost. Lean thinking is clearly part of the 2,000 percent solution many activities. These two books should be read together to create greater success and get you there faster.
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Summary: Excellent real world application source of Lean Production
Review: Principles and "How To Guides" are beneficial, but do not meet the needs of most action oriented business managers. Application and implementation success stories is what is really needed. "Lean Thinking" truely addresses these two business manager needs.
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Summary: Russian edition of Lean thinking
Review: Russian edition of Lean thinking was published in Russia in January 2004. It's a interesting, necessary book for Russain managers and companies...
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Summary: Must Read to Understand the Toyota Production System
Review: The authors do a great job of helping anyone understand the whys and hows of how the Toyota Production System. At last, here is a well written book to help you understand the different elements of Lean Manufacturing (Toyota Production System). This is a must read for anyone wanting to implement Lean Manufacturing in their company.
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Summary: Promising theory for the redesign of business.
Review: The authors set out to test the ideas laid out in their previous work, They apply the principles in their own factory and then take the reader to other sites where we see the application. The theory is nicely laid out and explained, the examples broad-ranging and instructive. As one reads, it is difficult to keep in mind that it is more an instruction manual with examples than an historical account. I found it very provoking. The principles are more easily and directly applied to manufacturing, and less to the service industries. Obviously, this is the next challenge to "Lean Thinking".
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Summary: Muda- An Organizational and Societal Evil
Review: The Machine That Changed The World brought an entirely new perspective on manufacturing. This volume continues with the insightful features of the last one.One of the significant departures from the earlier volume is the focus( or lack of it) on benchmarking. While the authors almost created the 'benchmarking industry' with that book, they no longer appear to be so fascinated by the concept. They say- let us forget what others are doing- let us see how far can we go on our own understanding and analysis. Sounds remarkably similar to the motivational concpets of self actualization. They feel that this is the way to remove muda. After all, the entire benchmarking industry could not have produced the 10X jumps brought by Toyota Motors in the 1950-60s. So their ideas are acceptable. Over all, the book represents an evolution of the thought and research done by these two manufacturing specialists. Certainly a good reading. More than the price
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Summary: Playing with Fire
Review: The principals in this book are sound. However, top management must make the full commitment and follow the principals as defined. Trying to shortcut the process will have detrimental results if not disastrous. The concepts in this book my sound very radical but in actuality are common sense. And that is the pitfall. I have seen where a company makes a commitment toward lean manufacturing. But somewhere along the line management thinks they can modify the principals or they begin to not see immediate results and they don't follow the plan to fruition. They end up losing money or their shirt! The hard way is always the easiest way. If you own your own company or are trying to sell this concept to management in your present work environment, it is important that everyone in the organization makes a commitment to Lean thinking. Do not cut corners and stay the course. Don't play with fire.
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Summary: Applies system thinking to the plethora of techniques
Review: There is a plethora of useful techniques available to organsations today in the quest for improvement. What is needed is the systems thinking that enables the tools to make a difference. Lean Thinking is a significant contribution to the quest. Whilst the system thinking expounded in Lean Thinking is still located in the process, rather than the organisation, the book needs to be part of a wider perspective, eg Theory of Constraints, to make the maximum impact. One interesting observation in the book is that benchmarking is a waste of time. This is particularly pertinant coming from authors who made their reputation as benchmarkers! By bouncing many of the accepted wisdoms of manufacturing, and demonstrating that the thinking can be applied widely, they offer a very worthwhile read.
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