Creating Continuous Flow: An Action Guide for Managers, Engineers & Production Associates [Spiral-bound]

Mike Rother (Author), Rick Harris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2001

Winner of the 2003 Shingo Prize!

Creating Continuous Flow narrows the focus of Learning to See from the door-to-door value stream perspective to achieving true continuous flow at your critical pacemaker processes.

This new workbook explains in simple, step-by-step terms how to introduce and sustain lean flows of material and information in pacemaker cells and lines, a prerequisite for achieving a lean value stream. Creating Continuous Flow takes you to the next level in cellularization where you'll achieve even greater cost and lead time savings.

You'll Learn:

• Where to focus your continuous flow efforts
• How to create much more efficient cells and lines
• How to operate a pacemaker process so that a lean value stream is possible
• How to sustain the gains and keep improving

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 105 pages
• Publisher: Lean Enterprise Institute (December 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966784332
• ISBN-13: 978-0966784336
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #247,970 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

For my background, visit the Toyota Kata homepage at:

www-personal.umich.edu/~mrother

For improvement kata training materials, visit SlideShare at:

www.slideshare.net/mike734/improvement-kata-handbook

Thank you to the many people who give me access to their companies and work with me in testing ideas! And a bow to Toyota, for giving us such an interesting subject about which to learn.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A weak attempt to explain flow, April 21, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Creating Continuous Flow: An Action Guide for Managers, Engineers & Production Associates (Spiral-bound)

I bought this book after having spent a couple of years learning lean at a company that does it pretty well. I didn't feel as if true flow was being implemented, and was hoping to find some knowledge that only highly experienced consultants could give from years spent at multiple sites. This book disppointed me greatly in my expectations. The way the authors deal with flow is on the surface at best. They talk of taking timings, but don't give details on how to do it well (like leave the stopwatch running so as not to lose observations). They fail to discuss movements of the operator that add to lack of flow. Instead they focus on "cells" that are created where there are piles of WIP between stations. Well, no kidding, they didn't get flow implemented. The book leaves you with the feeling of not having really gotten the whole story, and wondering if this was just a Lean Enterprise attempt at getting you to buy the next book they can come up with meant to answer all unanswered questions.
Stick to Learning to See as far as I'm concerned and move on to other authors.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book!, February 25, 2005

By 

Scott Yarbrough "syarbro" (St. Louis) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creating Continuous Flow: An Action Guide for Managers, Engineers & Production Associates (Spiral-bound)

This book is even better than Learning to See. There is much more detail about how to implement in-cell improvements. You are not doing LEAN until you start doing what this book teaches. I was able to start applying the principles immediately. This book shows you a practical, detailed, direct approach that is easier to understand and apply than the more theoretical LEAN Thinking and Machine that Changed the World.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top 10 Lean Books, March 7, 2008

By 

S. Frazier "Lean SME" (Maple Grove, MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creating Continuous Flow: An Action Guide for Managers, Engineers & Production Associates (Spiral-bound)

After reading approximately 30 "Lean" books, I reached a point where I was finding only a few new ideas from each book -- and I felt I knew as much or more than the author on some covered topics as well. But every once in a while, I read something that pushes me down to a "student" level, opening my eyes wider than before, and realizing how much of a lean journey lies ahead of me... that is what "Creating Continuous Flow" did to me. This book confirmed my understanding of key concepts such as takt time, total work content, and line balancing; but it also filled me with new knowledge on topics such as work distribution (e.g. "splitting the work" versus "the circuit") and building to pitch. And I use the guidelines for cell layout, machines, and materials management with each and every kaizen event. Although the book lacks an index and glossary that would help referencing the material (and it's Table of Contents is not detailed enough to be useful), the authors (Mike Rother and Rick Harris) do a fantastic job in simplifying the tactics of implementation while packing the short book (about 100 pages) with useful lean information. This is one of my top 10 Lean books, and I give the "red book" 5 stars -- highly recommended!