Lean Production Simplified, Third Edition: A Plain-Language Guide to the World's Most Powerful Production System

Following in the tradition of its Shingo Prize-winning predecessors, Lean Production Simplified, Third Edition gives a clear overview of the structure and tools of the Lean production system. Written for the practitioner by a practitioner, it delivers a comprehensive insider's view of Lean management.

The author helps readers grasp the system as a whole, as well as the factors that animate it, by organizing the book around an image of a house of Lean production. Illustrating the eight kinds of waste, this updated edition of a bestseller:

• Describes the craft and mass production systems that preceded Lean production—including the contributions of Frederick Winslow Taylor and Henry Ford


• Explains the concepts of visual management, Five S, and Total Productive Maintenance


• Addresses just-in-time delivery of parts and products


• Examines the jidoka principle


• Covers the nervous system of Lean management, hoshin planning


• Illustrates the culture of Lean management

This edition deepens and extends the previous edition with case studies on Lean outside the factory—in settings such as health care, IT, finance, design, engineering, and beyond. The case studies are based on personal experience of actual work in organizations generating real results.

Lean Production Simplified, Third Edition covers each of the components of Lean within the context of the Lean production system. The author's straightforward common sense approach makes this book an easily accessible, on-the-floor resource for every team member.