The writing was off, draggy, too research-businessy for me. But the content was good. There were a lot of charts and tables that I conveniently ignored. Why not? I'm not writing a research paper. Also, I got my way through the main thesis a few charts did help. And the thesis was that lean production is the best thing that happened to the auto-manufacturing industry, and even if it has its teeny-tiny flaws, it's self-improving and ever-evolvi Sometimes, I just mix the content with the writing.

And the thesis was that lean production is the best thing that happened to the auto-manufacturing industry, and even if it has its teeny-tiny flaws, it's self-improving and ever-evolving. The book actually reminded me of my first and last full-time job as an engineer not for the right reasons. I might have shown more interest in the manufacturing and processes management side of things at least for a few months , had I read it earlier. Design processes, optimization of parts, and my MD's favorite, System Engineering, could have been leaner.

Anyway, left for good. Hmm, I should share it with my former colleagues though. Also, that's the thing about lean production, it can be applied to any product or service. Best used in DevOpsSec these days. I might use what I learned from this book in my future endeavors. I will write a detailed review soon that'll cover the following: 1. How the American and European auto-manufacturers got interested in the Japanese.

What techniques each industry used before Lean Production. Superiority of Japanese total quality management, build-in-quality, feedback loop systems. Contribution of the Japanese labor in decision-making. Jun 11, Amit rated it really liked it. Though this book was written in the early nineties, it remains relevant today, not only to the auto industry but to many other industries. The key idea, that the responsibility for quality of any component of a larger system rests with the persons closest to it one person, a team, a supplier , taking out all crutches to ensure that quality issues are extremely visible, and then fixing the process that created the problem rather than the person, is a powerful one.

This focus on product quality i Though this book was written in the early nineties, it remains relevant today, not only to the auto industry but to many other industries. This focus on product quality increases productivity because less time is wasted in rework and increases revenue over the long term. But accomplishing this is not easy. This study brings out many facets of how this is accomplished by Japanese auto manufacturers.

For instance, they standardize the process making it easier for different functions to work together. Though accomplishing standardized process is not easy, it is essential.

As someone I know use to say, the process sets you free. It is also interesting to see how Japanese companies are willing to rotate people through different functions, and how every person in the company has some exposure to the core function of the company manufacturing.

The book also has a very interesting discussion of the Japanese supply chain, of how OEMs and their suppliers are tightly interlocked. In my opinion, this system can make it very difficult to start a new business. Suppliers are beholden to their existing customers, so they are not going to supply the new entrant. It is therefore no surprise that new entrants have to rely on foreign suppliers.

Long-term they have to build a domestic supply base to get the quality they need to remain competitive. Western companies are going to find it very difficult to supply in Japan, unless they embrace the same quality standards.

Which is why luxury brand companies do well LV, Apple but mid-market companies often struggle. Fascinating history of the development of mass production at the Henry Ford factory in early 's and how it excelled in terms of efficiency over European craft production. Large amount of statistics and graphs that were satisfying to me. Shows how the continuing use of cost and efficiency per part produced as the prime motivator in a company can be disastrous.

Discusses the new idea of "Lean Production" where manufacturing flow, flexibility, and value added per customer are important. Written Fascinating history of the development of mass production at the Henry Ford factory in early 's and how it excelled in terms of efficiency over European craft production. Written about 20 years ago so somewhat dated. Great read for anyone with an engineering or management interest.

I read this book for one of my Six Sigma, continue improvement class. The book was interesting at the beginning when it talked about the history of lean production and improvement.

There are lots of great examples about mass production and lean improvement in Ford Company. It also talks about Toyota and other car companies who adopted lots of changes in their manufacturing process based on their market knowledge.

This book can be interesting for the people who are in auto business and industry, I read this book for one of my Six Sigma, continue improvement class. This book can be interesting for the people who are in auto business and industry, or have a passion for cars and whatever relates to cars.

I did not enjoy this book that much because of its technicality. I'm not too much into cars, so that is my problem. Nov 15, Bob Wallner rated it it was amazing Shelves: audible , lean. The first book in the Womack and Jones Lean Trilogy, "Machine" is equal parts history book and business book.

The authors do a good job of presenting the historical facts behind the automotive revolution really starting with Henry Ford, then moving into the Sloan years at GM and finally discussing the emergence of the Japanese market and the impacts felt both in the US and in Europe.

There are no formu The first book in the Womack and Jones Lean Trilogy, "Machine" is equal parts history book and business book. There are no formulas on how to transform your company and there's very little guidance on how to roll out what was seen. There is a little discussion on leadership and management, as the focus of this book is really on what could be seen as an observer of the Japanese production system compared to what was going on in other places in the world.

There are a couple of good sections on product development and supply chain that take you out of the factory and show how Japanese companies manage non-production activities.

There were a couple things that stood out for me in this book. First and most notably I want to say how poorly GM is painted in this book. I'm actually impressed and I appreciate that they didn't try to censor the book.

Secondly I'm impressed with the author's view of the Ford Motor Company, I don't mean during the day of Henry Ford but in its current state. I've never visited a Ford plant but, the authors have painted a picture of a more progressive company that is open to embracing the Japanese method a production.

I was extremely surprised to hear that Sumitomo was part of Toyota's keiretsu. I spent working at a Sumitomo plant. The Japanese Nationals in the plant were very anti-lean and anti-Toyota. Their motto was, "We don't make cars, if our machines aren't running we're not making money. This is an excellent read and I regret that I waited this long to read it. The audiobook is a good choice as the book is unabridged and the narrator is pleasant to listen to.

The authors really try to make the point that lean production is a 'step function', similar to how radically mass production changed things versus craft production, but they didn't fully convince me. The book itself mentions that the ROIs that Ford saw from his change in production techniques were so insane that he could afford to easily raise wages and still remain enormously profitable. We haven't seen anything similar for lean production, and although there is plenty of data provided in the book to show that lean can do much better than high-inventory mass-production, it's not the orders-of-magnitude improvements that were found in the early s at Ford.

But the book never really had good pacing and after a few hours I felt like I was just hearing more about specifics of different factories in Europe vs. US vs. Japan, which couldn't hold my attention as someone only somewhat interested in the automotive industry.

Overall, not a bad use of time and probably a good read for someone with a higher interest level. Granted, it is a broad study about how lean compares to mass production in the car industry. The data and research are thorough, no doubt. What I did find is that this book is less about the machine that actually changed the world and more about proving that it did. Independent of the machine, some of the predictions of the car industry from thirty years ago have also taken an interesting turn of events.

But neither of these two points are real criticism, just wishes and thoughts thirty years later. What intrigued me: My mentor, Tom, recommended this book to me when we were discussing my career goal of becoming better versed in the automotive industry.

What I liked: It's a classic for a reason. What I didn't like: It's very dense with lots of theories, data, and figures. I found when I set it down it was hard to pick back up again.

Definitely something that you need to pace yourself with to absorb. I would What intrigued me: My mentor, Tom, recommended this book to me when we were discussing my career goal of becoming better versed in the automotive industry. I would have preferred in this edition for the additional learnings since to have been placed in the applicable parts of the book rather than a chapter at the end.

I felt like I had to go back and reference the original information. Favorite quote: "The best lean producers believe that the point of production is where value is truly added, not through indirect managerial activities, and that all employees need to understand this fact as soon as they enter the company.

Jul 09, Review Before Read rated it really liked it. In the beginning, I was thinking, why a title is a machine that changed the world when it talked only about the automobile production system? As I went along I discovered that the book may be talking about only automobiles but it's methods, principles, philosophy was so open that every industry, every sector easily evolved its practice along with it.

Be it Muda, total production management, root cause analysis, Kaizen, Gemba, five why's. It was a great adventure to read this book. Everything is written in proper synchronization so readers won't find problems in connecting the dots. I always find it interesting reading the books written based on past events that moulds present. I work in IT sector where we talk about project management, agile scrum having no idea what it is. My readers!!!

Nov 19, Ray rated it liked it. Book compares the progression from craftsmanship by hand and custom manufacturing with mass production and lean production. The authors had surveys and contact with car manufacturers and summarized the results in the book. As you'd assume, craftsmanship has the slowest production rate and highest errors, whereas lean production had a better production rate with the least errors and mass production, according to the numbers, seemed to have a higher production rate with a moderate amount of erro Book compares the progression from craftsmanship by hand and custom manufacturing with mass production and lean production.

As you'd assume, craftsmanship has the slowest production rate and highest errors, whereas lean production had a better production rate with the least errors and mass production, according to the numbers, seemed to have a higher production rate with a moderate amount of errors.

The production types also had implications for employee advancement and morale, where lean production allowed workers to constantly think about improvements as opposed to just doing only your assigned task. There are a lot of details in the book and it was a bit overwhelming to the point of sounding repetitive.

Good book for anyone interested in improving a process or production. Although it's geared toward mechanical products cars , many concepts could apply to any process. Having first learned about Lean development from the Poppendieck's trilogy of books it's quite interesting to see where those ideas developed from.

The car manufacturing history is more fascinating than I expected and there is a lot of excellent critiques of mass production firms.

Interpreting this myself to the software industry, software development is largely craft production as defined within The Machine. Most larger software firms are continually trying to apply mass production thinking eith Having first learned about Lean development from the Poppendieck's trilogy of books it's quite interesting to see where those ideas developed from. Most larger software firms are continually trying to apply mass production thinking either through the endless tooling standardisation or pining hopes on code generation.

Given how bespoke most software development is, Lean production is rightly the way to go allowing for the craftsmanship required to satisfy individual customer requests whilst achieving a higher quality standard in a more controlled and predictable way.

Dec 16, Tejashwi Sharan added it. In the beginning, I was thinking, why the title is a machine that changed the world when it talked only about the automobile production system?

The case of Toyota created an improved version of busine In the beginning, I was thinking, why the title is a machine that changed the world when it talked only about the automobile production system? Jun 12, David rated it it was amazing. This book is an important work in the business literature. While focused on the auto industry, the application of Lean thinking, and Lean management is nearly limitless. I worked in the Car Rental business for a number of years, and I can say I learned far too much about the quality, or lack there of, for the American manufacturers of the 's.

While this book, at times, may seem like a love letter to Toyota, certainly Toyota has done a spectacular job since the 's. Yes, they lost their wa This book is an important work in the business literature.

Yes, they lost their way, but are still a force in the industry. I think the points are quite, clear, and this is a good starting point to understand the origins of lean. The updates are particularly useful additions.

Covers the history of automobile manufacturing in the US, Europe and Japan from the early s to It particularly focuses on the culture and organization of Japanese companies like Toyota where long-term commitment to employees and product quality helped them attain market leadership around the world. It includes a study of over 80 assembly plants of different companies in each region assessed. Manufacturing innovations Interchangeability Labour force management.

Moving assembly line August, Task cycle for the average Ford assembler had been reduced from to 2. Sloan s approach At General Motors, Alfred Sloan s innovative thinking seemed to resolve the conflict between the need for standardization to cut manufacturing costs and the model diversity required by consumers.

Air Conditioning and Radios. The decline of US car makers Mass production had become commonplace in countries across the world Technology had taken place somewhat slowly. Endless experimentation. Discovery of die change The shusa is the leader of the team which designs and engineers a new product and gets it fully into production.

Lean Supply Chain Supplier pyramid Supplier s production costs and quality Cooperative relationship Performance measurement Deliver components directly to the assembly line Assemblers give suppliers advance notice of changes in volume Punishment to the suppliers.

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