The Machine That Changed the World : The Story of Lean Production [Paperback]

James P. Womack (Author), Daniel T. Jones (Author), Daniel Roos (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1991

This volume carefully traces the rise of the Toyota system from its take-off point in Ford's mass production system to its spread across the world, starting with the NUMMI joint venture with General Motors in California and now advancing in Europe, Latin America, and East Asia as well. It then identifies and describes the advantages of this system, which needs less of everything including time, human effort, inventories, and investment to produce products with fewer defects in smaller volumes at lower costs for fragmenting markets. The Machine That Changed the World even gave the system its name: lean.

In the decade since its launch in the fall of 1990, The Machine That Changed the World has sold more than 600,000 copies in 11 languages and has introduced a whole generation of managers and engineers to lean thinking. No lean library is complete without this groundbreaking book.

"The fundamentals of this system are applicable to every industry across the globea[and] will have a profound effect on human society. It will truly change the world." - New York Times

Paperback / 1990 / 323 pages

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This provocative and highly readable book summarizes five years of research by the International Motor Vehicle Program (IMVP) at MIT into the role of the autmobile industry in the world economy. The authors, all directors of the IMVP, recommend that Western automobile makers adopt the concept of lean production in all phases of automobile production. A thorough and persuasive explanation of the benefits of lean production, along with numerous examples, mainly from Japanese industry, support their recommendations. This important book offers informed insight into the auto industry; for all public and academic libraries.
- Joseph Barth, U.S. Military Acad. Lib., West Point, N.Y.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"The best current book on the changes reshaping manufacturing and the most readable." -- -- Business Week

"The fundamentals of this system are applicable to every industry across the globe...[and] will have a profound impact on human societyit will truly change the world." -- New York Times Magazine

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 323 pages
• Publisher: Productivity Press (November 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060974176
• ISBN-13: 978-0060974176
• Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 5.3 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #560,835 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #86 in Books > Professional & Technical > Automotive > Industry

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 55 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Business Book February 21, 2000

By J. G. Heiser

Format:Paperback

I read this book while working for a major software firm--it was fascinating to me that Toyota could update their automobiles faster than we could bring out a new operating system.

This study of the world automotive industry by a group of MIT academics reaches the radical conclusion that the much vaunted Mercedes technicians are actually a throwback to the pre-industrial age, while Toyota is far ahead in costs and quality by building the automobiles correctly the first time. The lesson that it cost more to fix it than to build it correctly should be applicable to a lot of industries--not just manufacturing. The description of the marketing information system that Toyota uses was very enlightening. They involve the entire company in generating marketing feedback. Even dealer sales staff spend time working on the new product teams. Trust me, very few high-tech firms methodically collect feedback from their customers, and none have a system this comprehensive.

This is not just a book about lean production--this is guidance in understanding how your business operates and delivering good products that your customers want.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Really good book April 15, 2008

By W. Defilippis

Format:Paperback

I have read a lot of the so called quality books, and have a master's degree in the field, and I have found few books that had this kind of relevance to how things are produced and why they work or don't work. More importantly, this is one of the few 'academic studies' (I recall this one came out of MIT) that is actually clearly written and straightforward.

Yes, Toyota is much of the focus in this book and it can sometimes seem to border on the PR level, but that doesn't take away from the information in this book. Having had access to most of the auto manufacturers when this study was done, and seeing the nuts and bolts, it is what people do wrong at other places that is as important as what Toyota had been doing right (a trend, I might add, that in recent years has dimmed, Toyota has had embarassing quality faults recently). The book does mention that what Toyota "pioneered" was not entirely homegrown, many of the techniques existed, but Toyota was unique in the auto world in the number of things they chose to adopt (as a counterpoint, when the 70's hit and the US auto makers started having real competition, they hired Dr. Edwards Demming as a consultant, he told them many of the things that this book points out and they basically paid the check, used it for PR about how they were serious, and ignored him).

And these are not new issues and continue to plague companies, fallacies like:

1)"It is the fault of the labor force"..while the UAW has not exactly been cutting edge, what this book points out is something known in quality circles for years, that most of the problems are using your labor force badly, not listening to them, and just plain bad management.

2)"The secret is robotics"..GM under good ole Roger Smith spent umpteen billions of dollars on robots, and their cars were still crap (and even better, when GM and Toyota did a joint factory in California in around 1980, they discovered that the most hi tech thing in the plant was a secretary's typewriter)

3)"Cheap Labor"....nuff said about that

4)"We could build as good a car as them (meaning Toyota, Nissan, etc) if we built only a few models". Problem? Toyota had more product lines then any of the big 3 at the time.

5)"We have team labor".....on the surface, yes, but when looked at you find the same old hierarchical management and decisions made by beancounters.

There are a lot of lessons to be learned in this book, and some surprises (anyone wanna know why Benz bought Chrysler? Benz production capability is one of the lousiest in the world as written about in this book, and I hear it isn't much better today).

One of the things that this book teaches is that a lot of the cost of vehicles is based in bad design, poor management and in an attitude that problems, no matter how small, can be overlooked. People are asking how developed countries can compete with third world labor, this tells how.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The truth about Detroit December 16, 2008

By D. C. Palter

Format:Paperback

If you want to understand why GM, Ford, and Chrysler are doomed and have been doomed for two decades, this is the book.

I've worked both for GM (twice) and in Japan for a Japanese automotive supplier, and I can attest that this book really got it right.

Unfortunately, while everyone in Detroit has read this book, they have never followed any of its advice or conclusions. All the talk about restructuring the US automobile manufacturers is simply about reducing costs and not about making better products by working cooperatively with employees, suppliers, dealers, and customers. Instead, Detroit continues to beat up suppliers on price and wonders why their quality is poor, push employees on wages and wonders why employees care little if the company is successful, haggle with their dealer network to push unwanted cars onto unreceptive customers.

We can bail out the industry financially, but until they learn to compete with the Japanese, they are doomed to decreasing relevance and increasing losses.

This book isn't exciting to read, but nearly 20 years since its original publication, it remains as relevant as ever.