Recommended Reading

The Machine That Changed The World
James P Womack, Daniel T. Jones, Daniel Roos
If you want to start at the beginning, this book is essential reading. Originally published in 1990, this book is the culmination of years of research by the authors. The authors and a team of assistants from around the globe set out to discover and document the methods used by the most efficient companies of the world. They found a common approach based on a set of principles. These principles have been termed "Lean Manufacturing".
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Lean Thinking
James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones
Where "The Machine That Changed The World" is heavily laden with statistics, graphs and charts, "Lean Thinking" is a more personal description of Lean Manufacturing. Here you will find real world examples of companies struggling to implement lean principles, spurred on by the promise of results that have been achieved by Toyota and other highly successful companies. Through the description of these companies' efforts you will gain a deeper understanding of the concepts and how to apply them.
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Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System
H. Kent Bowen, Daniel Spear
The Toyota Production System grew out of the workings of the company over 50 years, and it has never actually been written down. Making the implicit explicit, the authors lay out four principles that show how Toyota sets up all its operations as experiments and teaches the scientific method to its workers.
Subjects Covered:
Business policy, Business processes, Manufacturing, Operations management, Product management, Product planning & policy, Production processes, Technology & operations.
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Lean Solutions: How Companies and Customers Can Create Value and Wealth Together
James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones
This highly enlightening book uses Lean concepts and principles to explain why today’s consumers have more choices than ever, but at the same time, are often more dissatisfied. The book outlines how redesigning consumption processes using Lean concepts can result in increased satisfaction and lower cost. If you have ever been ready to pull your hair out while trying to obtain needed product or services you should read this book.
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Getting the Right Things Done
Pascal Dennis
Pascal Dennis covers the basics of strategy deployment extremely well. He explains the concepts, methods and tactics used by Toyota to maximize improvement. His extremely practical description of strategies "as stories that engage" and his clear explanations of similar concepts make the complex subject matter accessible to everyone. The book is easy to read and the words he uses are very effective. For example, when he explains how "translation" makes strategies "real" to employees at every level of an organization or when he describes the "Catchball" process as a "scrubbing" process where teams "toss ideas back and forth" to create plans that are realistic and achievable. Mr. Dennis is a former Toyota employee and accomplished author.
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