The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production-- Toyota's Secret Weapon in the Global Car Wars That Is Now Revolutionizing World Industry

I read the book and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a lot to digest at first but once it started clicking with me I realized it really makes you think. I actually own a 2016 Toyota Camry and it made me look at my Camry in a different way as far as looking at what it took to actually make and produce my car. From tracing it not only to the dealership I bought it from, but now thinking about from when it was designed to the part supplier to the assembly to the paint to all the 10,000 plus parts that are apart of my car. It gives you more of an appreciation for the manufacturing of vehicles. And I myself work in a manufacturing plant, though not for auto. So I am able to look at my job and see the elements of Lean production that we have, though for the most part, we are, in fact a Mass production plant, at least according to how this book broke down each. I will say that this is a great book for anyone in any kind of manufacturing industry as you will get a sense of how production works through all phases. And maybe take some of what you learn and possibly recommend it to your supervisors and managers which may improve things at your own plant possibly.

required reading for anyone involved in Lean Manufacturing. Easy to read and very interesting

This book was a great introduction to the concept of lean manufacturing. The writing style of the book is comprehensive enough to be useful for current managers, yet readable enough to be engaging for those who are new (i.e. students) to these concepts. Those who are more savvy in the area of operations and supply management may find the book a bit repetitive in some areas. Although the book focuses on auto manufacturers (mainly Toyota), a reader should not expect a detailed account of Toyota's supply chain or operations management, but rather a survey of concepts and a view of how Toyota has applied these methods and/or how other auto manufacturers have lagged on applying these techniques. The book provides many comparisons to assist the reader in understanding (the general approach per chapter is to give an overview of the mass production system, and then give its improved lean production counterpart). The book does not give any practically methodology on how to convert a non-lean production system over to a lean one, but there are many other books out there that can delve into this further. If you are looking for a book to introduce you to lean production, written in laymen's terms, using a model that almost all of us can understand I strongly recommend this book. However, you will need more background/research than this book provides to actually apply lean operations methodologies if you so desire.

Five stars for a very well researched tome, chock full of case studies. The text has aged well in spite of the publication date. I bought my copy in 2025

I love his book and bought another one for a relative. This is real research and reads less like management book but like a non fiction story. I loved learning about the history of car manufacturers and how the business practices established by Ford and GM are why car dealers act the way they do in America. It is a disgrace. Japanese car dealers seem to do the right thing. Very enlightening about how they view their customers vs how the Americans do.

While this is THE classic book on lean production, it suffers from two problems. First, the topic is lean production but the book is based on research focussed exclusively on data from automobile assembly plants rather than broader data across different types of manufacturing. This forces the authors to treat the best automobile assembly plant as the best model for lean production. Had the authors looked beyond the automobile assembly industry, they might have come to a different conclusion. But the problem is worse than that. Not only did they use only one set of data from one industry, they also allowed bias to color their analysis. They were biased toward product design, production engineering and JIT. They give short-shrift to the real key. The original researcher for this study was John Krafcik (he later became the President and CEO of Hyundai Motor America). In his own report of the data he pointed out that the skills and motivation of the work force has the greatest explanatory power of assembly plant performance. Yet this is given remarkably little attention in this book. Had the authors look beyond the automobile assembly even as nearby as the turnaround at Harley Davidson this focus on people might have gotten much more attention. In the case of Harley, there was no way to miss that the key was the people in every factory floor function. Get the people environment right, and everything else will sort itself out. Get it wrong and your ability to perform with high productivity and quality deteriorates. None of the plants studied actually does an exemplary job with people. Early in the book the authors insert several paragraphs on how the lean environment might increase employee stress, create anxiety over making costly mistakes, might cause the employee to miss getting a specific enough skill to be marketable outside the company, and worry that "workers may feel they have reached a dead end at an early point in their career." Clearly, the authors did not 'get-it' when it comes to people in this environment. But, they've done well for themselves promoting the other aspects of lean, and, no doubt, had very positive impacts on company's bottom lines. When they get the people equation right, they'll be even more potent.

As much as a great historic analysis of lean and mass production as a template to commission a synthesis of the growth and propagation of a concept across cultures.

Es una obra fundamental de referencia en la historia del "Lean Manufacturing". Recoge los resultados de la investigación llevada a cabo durante 5 años en la industria del automóvil y en lo relativo al sistema de producción en masa frente al nuevo paradigma (ya no tan nuevo) del Lean Manufacturing/Production cuyas bases están en el sistema de producción de Toyota. Por lo que respecta al envío fue muy rápido y llegó en perfectas condiciones. Muy buen servicio.

superbly inciteful book, it's like it had been written by time travellers

About the ins and outs of lean vs mass production that started in the automotive sector and gradually took upon the world, proving right the initial theory of lean approach's efficiency in product, production, supply chain, and beyond. Productivity, quality, modularity, agility, craftsmanship vs standardisation. There must also be a book out there exploring how lean integrates in different cultural contexts (geography and company specific). 'Truly lean plant has two key org characteristics: It transfers the max number of tasks and responsibilities to those workers actually adding value to the car on the line, and it has in place a system for detecting defects that quickly traces every problem, once discovered, to its ultimate cause.' Interestingly, this essentially history of automotive industry touches on climate change that the industry heavily contributes to and levers to overcome market saturation like self-driving technology.

Il primo di una lunga serie di libri per lean manager. Non il più semplice e non il più utile... ma va letto per conoscere le origini della lean manifacturing

i think its the best book that describes and gives us clear understanding about the evolution of practices and procedures followed by the worlds leading automotive manufactures, describing importance of lean practise