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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13 of 13 found the following review helpful:
 Historical PerspectiveMay 03, 2005
By Robert A. Drensek
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 found the following review helpful:
 Kaikaku (Norman Bodek) Lean Manufacturing made simpleApr 19, 2004
By Mr. Tony Corrigan
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 found the following review helpful:
 Not representative of his other workJan 05, 2006
By E. Husman
"ehusman"
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.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Please don't judge this book by its editing...Jul 22, 2006
By Superwildcatfan
"Shawn Chase"
This is an excellent book for those looking for a history and overview of the evolution of Lean Manufacturing. Unfortunately the book is so riddled with grammatical and spelling errors that it is distracting. Please don't judge the other books he has brought to us by this one. Norm Bodek is the guy who got all of those great Japanese management books translated to English, and those that I have read, such as JIT is Flow and 5 Pillars of the Visual Workplace, are excellent.
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
An insider's perspective of the evolution of lean and TPSJun 17, 2004
By Mark S. Edmondson
This is the story of how Norman Bodek met and what he learned from the great manufacturing masters of the past twenty-five years. Norman shares his adventures with Ohno, Shingo, Akao, Nakajima, Deming, Juran, Crosby, and others. It's the next best thing to meeting these men in person.
A must read for the serious lean practitioner.
Mark Edmondson, President, LEAN Affiliates
www.leanaffiliates.com
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