Lean Machines: Learning From the Leaders of the Next Industrial Revolution [Paperback]

Richard A. McCormack (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0972240705 | ISBN-13: 978-0972240703 | Publication Date: August 14, 2002

Lean Machines: Learning From The Leaders Of The Next Industrial Revolution provides readers with a unique compilation of interviews with some of the country's most respected executives who have deep intellectual and emotional experience in implementing lean.

CEOs, vice presidents, consultants, Wall Street analysts and accountants provide readers with their perspectives on how to implement a lean business system. They are the architects of such successful implementations as Pratt & Whitney's Achieving Competitive Excellence program, the Danaher Business System, the Alcoa Production System and Freudenberg NOK's hugely successful six-step lean process.

Each of the 15 offers advice on how to overcome the barriers from the shop floor, to mid-level management, to the board room. They provide their personal experiences, insights and recommendations on the most important aspects of embedding lean systems within a corporate culture. All have successfully implemented a fundamentally different and often counter-intuitive system of running their business based on the lean principles of build to order, continuous improvement and the elimination of waste.

The interviews were conducted by Manufacturing News Editor & Publisher Richard McCormack and include the following individuals:

o George Koenigsaecker, Former CEO, HON Industries and Principal, Simpler Consulting;

o Michael Joyce, Corporate Vice President of Operating Excellence at Lockheed Martin;

o Robert Weiner, Senior Vice President of Global Manufacturing, Exide Technologies;

o Mark DeLuzio, Architect, Danaher Business System & President of Lean Horizons;

o James Womack, President, Lean Enterprise Institute and author of Lean Thinking and The Machine That Changed The World;

o Dave Logozzo, Director of Manufacturing Operations, Delphi Corp.;

o Cliff Ransom, Director of Research, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC;

o Ken Kreafle, Vice President of Quality at Toyota, Georgetown, Ky.;

o Keith Turnbull, Executive Vice President, Alcoa Business System;

o Allen Haggerty, General Manager of Engineering, Boeing;

o Brian Maskell, President, BMA Inc., Lean Accounting;

o Art Byrne, President and CEO of Wiremold Co.;

o Major Gen. Dennis Haines, Warner Robins AFB;

o Joseph Day, CEO, Freudenberg-NOK; and

o Dan Yurovich, CEO, Barry Controls

o Lt. Col. Fred Hart, Commander, U.S. Army Red River Depot

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Lean production and management systems are transforming the industrial complex. Companies and organizations that adopt lean are out performing their rivals in virtually every measure. Lean is quickly proving to be a superior system over mass production techniques that have not changed since Henry Ford introduced them to the world almost 100 years ago.

Lean tools and techniques work, but they require adroit management and buy-in from all levels of an organization, especially the leadership.

Manufacturing News Editor Richard McCormack's probing, insightful questions of the leading lean luminaries provide first-hand accounts of what it takes to transform an organization using the common lean tools of building to order and not to a forecast, continuous improvement and the total elimination of waste and inventory.

The subjects in "Lean Machines" discuss the journey, the barriers, leadership persistence, skills and knowledge necessary for the long-term success and survival of their organizations.

From the Author

Having been a technology journalist for the past 20 years who has been bombarded by publicists touting the next 'revolutionary' product or process, I am loath to use the term 'revolutionary' to describe anything. But lean is a revolution that will invariably impact every company in the country. Just look at the phenomenal success Dell Computer and Toyota are having and you'll understand the power and necessity of lean principles.

It's a shame the word "lean" has been attached to an entirely new method of production and business management. People hear "lean" and they think, "Oh, no, not another fad."

Lean is not a fad. Lean is the only business system that has legs. But it is a counter-intuitive system that can be difficult to understand and even more difficult to implement. When a company starts making a product only after it has received an order, every aspect of its operation begins to change, from the shop floor, to human relations, accounting, marketing and sales.

Companies like Toyota and Dell are constantly eliminating waste so they can be more responsive to fast-changing market demand. Such a system requires adept management well beyond the plant manager and shop supervisor level.

For this book, I tried to interview the most respected people in the country from a variety of companies and organizations. Their varied perspectives can provide anyone interested in the subject with a comprehensive and easy-to-read account of the real issues that must be addressed in implementing a lean business model.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 147 pages
• Publisher: Publishers & Producers (August 14, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0972240705
• ISBN-13: 978-0972240703
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,657,851 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very useful insights into lean manufacturing, on target!, October 19, 2002

By 

Tim Ryan (Detroit MI, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lean Machines: Learning From the Leaders of the Next Industrial Revolution (Paperback)

A lot has been written about lean, but nothing yet compares to what this book has done.... It's the first time anyone has provided straight answers about the true nature of lean. The author asks the right questions and gets surprising responses. Having spent 20 years in the automotive business, I found this book extremely useful.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Virtuosos of Lean Production, September 15, 2002

By 

fred stahl (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lean Machines: Learning From the Leaders of the Next Industrial Revolution (Paperback)

This is a hot book! I coached a team of manufacturing managers who worked in a large traditional factory. Our job was to study manufacturing operations in companies that had adopted Toyota's productivity methods and policies. While the men and women on the team had read about lean production, they were disquieted and perhaps even disturbed by obviously highly performing plants that were organized and operated according to principles foreign to their beliefs. At each plant we visited their discomfort deepened. Then, somewhere between the second and fourth visit, each manager had an epiphany. There was some kind of logical reorganization of the manufacturing furniture in their minds and they "got it", as they described the event. Others said, "the light came on." They saw the fundamental logic and sense underlying each lean factory even though each facility assembled pieces of Toyota's productivity methods and policies into its own unique manufacturing system. Interestingly, each member of the visit team became a passionate believer of lean manufacturing. The greatest skeptics became the most outspoken advocates. They called it "getting religion."

People who successfully implement lean manufacturing must be strong believers and must have a personal mental model of lean that functions at the level of a craft - a creative skill for assembling productivity methods and policies into powerfully efficient manufacturing machines. As the great Japanese coaches from Toyota teach Westerners, there is no cookbook, lean is a way of thinking.

The literature on lean production is disappointing. Lean manufacturing books tend to be long dreary laundry lists of productivity methods and technical techniques for quality. There is little available that gives insight into how the great master craftsmen and craftswomen put together marvelous lean machines of production - until now.

This book by Richard McCormack finally brings us face to face with the creative processes of great designers of production systems. Imagine yourself as a novice artist sitting down for a conversation with Auguste Renoir, Vincent Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec or Michelangelo. That is what McCormack brings us in this book - chats with the virtuosos of lean production. Forget those paint-by-numbers books. Either go see the real thing or read "Lean Machines".

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Virtuosos of Lean Production, September 15, 2002

By 

fred stahl (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lean Machines: Learning From the Leaders of the Next Industrial Revolution (Paperback)

This is a hot book! I coached a team of manufacturing managers who worked in a large traditional factory. Our job was to study manufacturing operations in companies that had adopted Toyota's productivity methods and policies. While the men and women on the team had read about lean production, they were disquieted and perhaps even disturbed by obviously highly performing plants that were organized and operated according to principles foreign to their beliefs. At each plant we visited their discomfort deepened. Then, somewhere between the second and fourth visit, each manager had an epiphany. There was some kind of logical reorganization of the manufacturing furniture in their minds and they "got it", as they described the event. Others said, "the light came on." They saw the fundamental logic and sense underlying each lean factory even though each facility assembled pieces of Toyota's productivity methods and policies into its own unique manufacturing system. Interestingly, each member of the visit team became a passionate believer of lean manufacturing. The greatest skeptics became the most outspoken advocates. They called it "getting religion."

People who successfully implement lean manufacturing must be strong believers and must have a personal mental model of lean that functions at the level of a craft - a creative skill for assembling productivity methods and policies into powerfully efficient manufacturing machines. As the great Japanese coaches from Toyota teach Westerners, there is no cookbook, lean is a way of thinking.

The literature on lean production is disappointing. Lean manufacturing books tend to be long dreary laundry lists of productivity methods and technical techniques for quality. There is little available that gives insight into how the great master craftsmen and craftswomen put together marvelous lean machines of production - until now.

This book by Richard McCormack finally brings us face to face with the creative processes of great designers of production systems. Imagine yourself as a novice artist sitting down for a conversation with Auguste Renoir, Vincent Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec or Michelangelo. That is what McCormack brings us in this book - chats with the virtuosos of lean production. Forget those paint-by-numbers books. Either go see the real thing or read "Lean Machines".