Customer Reviews

Lean Manufacturing That Works: Powerful Tools for Dramatically Reducing Waste and Maximizing Profits

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have a number of lean books in my library--most of which are fairly solid on presenting the lean philosophy, principles and tools. All the concepts here are straightforward--very clearly presented. If you were going to launch your first lean event into an organization that is unfamiliar with lean--this would be my choice because Carreira is so practical. His background is consulting, so his chapters read like a diary (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 etc.)for a lean implementation. He has seen a number of companies and draws from past experiences: he knows what works and how to avoid the pitfalls to achieve bottom line results. Lean is a philosophy and the biggest gains will be in the "buy-in" in the organization. From his easygoing demeanor, you can see why he has succeeding as a consultant--is humor and demeanor disarms the fear of change and fosters team participation. This is a good buy and a good start point for applying lean. Good luck.

I received information about Bill Carreria's book from a colleague of mine. I found the book to be extremely insightful in the field of "Doing" (training & implementing) Lean manufacturing in a teamwork environment. This book has greatly helped me uncover "waste", Non Value Added activities and develop methods of correcting and measuring. This is the best $20 I've ever spent on anything developed to improve productivity and customers satisfaction. Thanks Bill

Scott

Mr Carreira discusses Lean and particularly Value Stream Mapping in down to earth how to manner. He gives details and examples that should help everyone in implementing Lean into their organization.

He does an excellent job at showing how 5S and SMED fits within a lean implementation.

If there exists a weakness in this book it may be that very little is discussed on the order entry and finish product packaging and shipping in Value Stream creation.

In general, if you are just beginning to consider Lean or if you have begun lean or have implemented portions of lean and want a great guide in doing it better, this is the book to buy.

"Lean Manufacturing that Works" might just be the best book on Lean thinking that I've ever read. Its practicle approach and delivery make it a must for anyone truely interested in getting its message accross to people facing real life problems on the shop floor. It has the unique ability to address multiple levels of employees and managers with out losing the key message or audience. This is a must for everyone's arsenal who are responsible for creating and implamenting a change to a Lean culture in their organization.

The subject matter is of much interest to me as I have a BBA and an MBA in Operations Management and have only worked in manufacturng environments. I am staring a new job tomorrow and catching up on reading about my profession after being unemployed for 5 months. This author's writing style is too condesending though. I am at Chapter 10 right now out of 20 and it's about value-stream mapping which will be very helpful for me to brush up on sense I am starting a new position. I am going to try to get through it but I would not recommend it.

I read many reviews of many different books before deciding to purchase this one. This was really the first book I've read regarding Lean Manufacturing. My background is in computers and electrical engineering so a lot of manufacturing terminology was new to me. If you are a newbie to Lean Manufacturing this seems like a pretty good place to start. Actually, before you read this you should consider reading "The Goal" by Eli Goldratt (which seems to be an industry standard in manufaturing).

For what seems like a pretty dry topic the author did an excellent job keeping it interesting.

I did not like the style of writting. Many "joke"-alike phrases that simply make the number of pages grow. It seemed to me that this is not about writting a book but simply publishing notes from one of the sessions the writer conducted.

An easy to read summary of the core components of Lean Manufacturing, and excellent for shop floor supervisors and team members. The anecdotal and story-telling style brings a great dose of the real-world into what otherwise could be a rather dry topic. From a total enterprise perspective, only a couple pages are spent on important topics such as lean accounting, however this book is not written for that audience.

Bill Carreira has written a great book on Lean. He takes to a level of common sense and practicality that anyone can understand. This book would be a great tool for any organization to use in teaching staff how to apply the prinicples of Lean manufacturing. The humor and common sense approach make it a very enjoyable read. I consider it to be one of the best manufacturing books I have ever read. The day after reading this book an individual or group of people can begin applying Lean and cutting costs. It is that simple.

Now I have a few things to say when a job interviewer asks what do I know about Lean Manufacturing. I have been out of Mfg. for seven years and I needed to brush up on things. Read other reviews for more in depth data.