Kaikaku: The Power and Magic of Lean (Paperback)

~ Norman Bodek (Author) "A parallel exist between 1979 when my journey of discovery started and the year 2004..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Shigeo Shingo, Taiichi Ohno (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

As you read, I hope that you will appreciate the years of learning that went into its’ creation -- Bill Kluck, President NWLEAN.net

I am enjoying the stories, I better appreciate your greatness as a thinker, a leader and as a human being. -- Don Dewar, Timely Tips for Teams, April 2004

I thank Norman for opening the door to Japan and bringing such valuable knowledge to the world. -- Jon Miller, President Gemba Research

The book is just great ... your sincerity and enthusiasm shine through every paragraph. The stories are fascinating. -- T.V. Suresh, President, Tao Consulting , Chenai, India

wonderful book ... I couldn't put it down. -- Alan G. Robinson, Co-author of Ideas Are Free and Corporate Creativity

Product Description

Lean is an all out war against waste of both manufacturing inefficiencies and underutilization of people.

The Power and Magic of Lean is to discover those hidden treasures within your company: to find and eliminate all of the non-value adding wastes and to bring out the infinite creative capacity from every single worker.

In the early 1980’s, I met Mr. Ohno, Dr. Shingo, and other great manufacturing geniuses and published their books in English and brought to the west: Lean, JIT, Kanban, 5S, SMED, TPM, QFD, Hoshin, CEDAC, Kaizen Blitz and other powerful improvement tools and techniques.

Kaikaku is about the discovery of Lean, who I met, how I met them, and the colorful stories about the great manufacturing geniuses of our time.

Read this book in study groups to strengthen your Lean efforts.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: PCS Press (March 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971243662
• ISBN-13: 978-0971243668
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #351,480 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Historical Perspective, May 3, 2005

By	Robert A. Drensek (Huntsville, AL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am a Lean Practioner and 6 Sigma Black Belt. The advertisement for the book lead me to beleive that it was something different. I enjoyed and learned from the book.

What the book was to me is a personal history of the introduction of lean to the US. Mr. Bodek was a key and instrumental force in doing so. From that perspective the book fills in a lot of gaps of how things happened and who played what role. The book also gives a great overview of what Lean (Toyota Production System, TPS) is and how it is applied, and who the key players were/are and an insight to their personalities.

The book is not a detailed examination of the production system. If you are looking for that, Mr. Bodek gives references to other books published by his company translated from the original Japanese. This gives you insight to those works and which to chose from. This, in and of itself, is worth the price of this book.

The book does cover the major topics of the TPS and gives plenty of examples and implementation stories. The stories are great in themsleves, and a great insight to the way of Japanese management. Mr. Bodek is a strong proponent of that style. It also goes into some biographies of the key players in the process. It hits on Demings' and Juran's impact in Japan.

The war stories of the industrial touring trips to Japan were interesting. The problems faced by jumping in to the publishing opportunities to present the original works to a new audience were facinating business stories.

The biggest AHA moment for me was the discussion on Quick and Easy Kaizen, or the Japanese implementation of a sugggestion system. Radically different from any I've seen in the US outside of Honda and Toyota.

If your looking for a fast easy read on the history of bringing Lean to the US and the key underpinnings of the process to include a good description of the key components with annecdotes, this is the book for you. If your looking to understand lean and find other references of use to you, this is the book for you. If your insterested in filling in some knowledge gaps of how and why some things happened, again, this is for you. If your looking for specific action items to implement specific components, go elsewhere, or use this book as a guide.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kaikaku (Norman Bodek) Lean Manufacturing made simple, April 19, 2004

By	Mr. Tony Corrigan (Ireland) - See all my reviews

Norman Bodek is a master and genius when it comes to sharing information about Lean Manufacturing. I just finished reading Kaikaku and must praise and congratulate Norman for his vision to have seen the potential in Japan and the people in Toyota all those years ago. Norman truly is an inspiration and unsung hero of modern manufacturing and this book shares some great personal experiences with the original creators of Lean in Japan such as Ohno and Shingo, to name just two.

This account of his experiences and the wisdom shared within the book (Kaikaku) will benefit the many people and companies who are attempting to get to grips with the lean tranformation process all over the world. This book has unveiled many of the mysteries surrounding the original creators of Lean and shows how basic common sense and simple thinking by everyone can create miraclulous results in any company.

May those who seek the truth and simplicity of the Toyota Production System be inspired with the knowledge shared in this marvelous book.

Tony Corrigan

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not representative of his other work, January 5, 2006

By	E. Husman "ehusman" (Las Cruces, NM USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I don't know why my original review disappeared, but it had gotten 1 useful vote.

I got this book after having read lots of books published by Mr. Bodek's Productivity Press. Although this book was not what I expected, I still found it to be an enjoyable, autobiographical narrative. The sections dealing with an eccentric Shigeo Shingo were the best. Kaikaku is not a book that tells you how to turn your company around; it is an informal, easy-going history of how Norman brought Ohno and Shingo to the US.

However, the poor production values (sloppy edits, inexplicable font changes, missed changes between block quote and normal text) were distracting. My warning to readers is that if this is the first book you ever read by Mr. Bodek, don't use this to judge the quality of other products put out by his former employer, Productivity Press.