The Second Century: Reconnecting Customer and Value Chain through Build-to-Order; Moving beyond Mass and Lean Production in the Auto Industry

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Summary: Excellent analysis of the automotive industry
Review: Highly recommendable book for anyone interested in production management or current trends in automotive industry. Holweg and Pil describe the challenges of car manufacturers and the challenges they are facing. Although, "Built-to-last and made-to-stock" seems the way many companies are still heading, something new is required. The key points seem to be demand for build-to-order type of process and increasing product variety. Responding to this requires different types of flexibility.

This phenomenon has many parallels to other industry sectors such as fast moving consumer goods and especially electronics products. "The Second Centrury" is a continuum to "Machine that Changed the World". This is a great book for MBA or MSc courses in industrial management and it gives a critical perspective on many current practices.

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Summary: A vital follow-up to the "Machine that Changed the World"!
Review: Holweg and Pil provide a comprehensive analysis of the drivers - and inhibitors - of the performance of entire value chains. They show that in increasingly demanding and dynamic markets, the forecast-driven systems currently in place cannot cope, and the current incentive crisis in the auto sector marks just a case in point. Drawing on over a decade of research with the MIT International Motor Vehicle Program, they demonstrate that well-intentioned lean manufacturing programs, implemented in isolation, can create 'islands of excellence' - but may do so at the expense of the responsiveness and profitability of the whole value chain.
A great follow-up to 'The Machine that Changed the World' that demonsrates the need of, and road towards, a responsive build-to-order system that reconnects lean factories to the customer!