Kanban Made Simple: Demystifying and Applying Toyota's Legendary Manufacturing Process [Hardcover]

John M. Gross (Author), Kenneth R. McInnis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 13, 2003

Kanban is a revolutionary "just in time" manufacturing theory originally developed at Toyota to ensure that parts and supplies are ordered as needed. "Kanban Made Simple" takes what can be a complicated topic and translates it into easy-to-understand language, leading readers through the entire Kanban process.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

"Originally developed at Toyota, the approach to manufacturing known as Kanban has helped revolutionize how corporations and suppliers achieve maximum efficiency in getting products to and from the assembly line. When implemented properly, the Kanban technique minimizes waste, avoids overproduction, and ensures quick response to changes and problems.

Kanban Made Simple is the first simple ‘how-to’ guide for incorporating the just-in-time ingenuity of the Kanban system into any manufacturing environment. From the Japanese word for “visual record,” the technique dictates that suppliers deliver parts to the warehouse only as they are needed, reducing storage in the production area. Using before-and-after case studies, this easy-to-follow guide contains information on establishing project goals, forming a Kanban team, and designing the process. Kanban Made Simple helps readers decide if Kanban is right for their organization, then teaches them how to train personnel and administer the program. A ready-to-use CD-ROM, included with the book, guides the Kanban team through the entire implementation process."

About the Author

John M. Gross (Washington, MO) is the author of The Fundamentals of Preventive Maintenance. Kenneth R. McInnis (Washington, MO) has been published internationally on the subject of productivity.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 17 and up
  
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM (May 13, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814407633
• ISBN-13: 978-0814407639
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,728 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > Professional & Technical > Automotive > Foreign
  • #29 in Books > Business & Investing > Industries & Professions > Transportation
  • #32 in Books > Business & Investing > Industries & Professions > Industrial Relations

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Implementation Book, January 16, 2005

By 

Lean Practitioner - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kanban Made Simple: Demystifying and Applying Toyota's Legendary Manufacturing Process (Hardcover)

Kanban Made Simple is a great book to help in teaching people how to implement Kanbans. While many people conceptually understand Kanban, they do not understand all the elements that go into sizing the kanban and into the design of the kanban. This book addresses all these elements (sizing, type, visual management, rollout, and batch size reduction)in a step by step method. I recommend it to all my clients.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book - mainly about data collection and kanban sizing, April 10, 2007

By 

O. David (Schweiz) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kanban Made Simple: Demystifying and Applying Toyota's Legendary Manufacturing Process (Hardcover)

A few years ago I was looking for a book about how to size a kanban system. This book is exactly about this topic and follows a step by step approach. Many people believe, that implementing a Pull-system is possible by following cooking-receipts, it is not. Anyone thinking about implementation of a Pull-system, should first understand when it makes sense and when there are better alternatives for your business. Pull-systems can be used as long as your product variaty is not to broad and when demand varies within +/- 20%.

The book starts with what data has to be collected and even gives some hints about consistent data (even wrong data examples are given). What I missed a little bit, are more information about the real meaning of the replenishment interval and sometimes the numbers calculated in the example seem to be rounded in a fancy manner.

Furthermore when sizing the kanbans it would be usefull to have a better description (example/ sketch) what the replenishment quantity and buffer quantity means. Without this information the reader beeing new in this area has to make a guess on his own. The different visual signs and cards (+equivalents) to control your kanban system are well explained.

What is missing in this book? The book is weak when it comes to other very important issues as line lay-out, the importance of cell implementation, load leveling (heijunka), line-balancing (vs. takt-time) etc. The book "Pull Production for the Shopfloor" from the Productivity Press Development Team is very easy to read and provides many information and simple drawings about the missing knowledge. Furthermore the book presents calculations about the influence of reducing lot size (set-up time), reducing unplanned machine downtime and the influence of scrap/rework. If you are really interested in understanding the bad influence of large lot size, machine unavailability and scrap/rework you need to take a deeper look into Operations Management, as provided by Quick-Response-Manufacturing, Factory Physics or other usefull books..

This book will do an excellent job combined with other books that cover the missing points. Adopting this production system requires more than sizing a system, you need to change the mindset of your workforce for relentless persuit of continuous improvement (Kaizen) and some understanding about the tools used together with this system: 5S, TPM, SMED, ZQC etc. Furthermore for complex manufacturing systems the question where to start with Pull-implementation of a single line becomes crucial. Sometimes you do not need even to turn your whole processes to pull and a mix of push-pull lines and pull lines might be a better approach for your needs. For people interested in making a splash and where Pull-systems do not seem to be the right approach, I strongly recommend to read Quick-Response-Manufacturing. This approach has many insights in common with JIT/Lean but is much easier to apply. The knowledge from operations management itself will even help to understand pull-systems and what they are based uppon.

Enjoy reading,
Oliver

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Note from the authors and a special offer., September 26, 2011

By 

John M. Gross - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Kanban Made Simple (Paperback)

We have listened to the comments offered by our readers and updated the companion workbook. The forms and documentation files have been recreated in Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint formats for use in planning and implementing your kanban.

If you purchase the book and would like the workbook file, please send me an email at '[e-mail]' so that I can send you this new and improved workbook.

Our offer is also available to those who have previously purchased the book.

Thank you for your time.

John Gross
Author