| | |  | Lean Management | Home » » » » Taiichi Ohno's Workplace Management | | | | | | | Description: | | This classic work by the founding father of the Toyota Production System returns to print in a new translation. Ohno delivers timeless lessons on how to effectively manage the gemba actual place or work. He relates stories from across his nearly 40 years of struggle to establish the Toyota Production System as both a mindset and supporting behaviors of constant improvement. In the book s 37 chapters, Ohno covers a broad range of topics and lays out the fundamental philosophy of kaizen (continuous improvement) that has made Toyota the most successful automobile manufacturer today. | | | Features: | |
• This classic work by the founding father of the Toyota Production System returns to print in a new translation.
| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Taiichi Ohno | | Hardcover:
| 146 pages | | Publisher:
| Gemba Press | | Publication Date:
| April 27, 2007 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0978638751 | | Product Length:
| 6.0 inches | | Product Width:
| 1.0 inches | | Product Height:
| 9.0 inches | | Package Length:
| 9.0 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.1 inches | | Package Height:
| 0.5 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.55 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 8 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 8 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 found the following review helpful:
A must for the lean libraryMay 08, 2007
By Jamie Flinchbaugh
While no one person invented lean, no one is given more credit than Taiichi Ohno. Access to his true thoughts and ideas are rare, and this book is the best and most useful of Ohno's work. Many lean students would want nothing more than to spend a day with Taiichi Ohno walking through their plant. This book is the closest thing we have left to that experience. Jon Miller has done a diligent job not just in translation but ensuring that the true meaning comes through in a readable fashion. You truly feel as if you are in conversation with the father of the Toyota Production System. While this book won't paint a clear picture of what to do next on your lean journey, it should be required reading for any serious student of the subject.
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
Excellent, futher evidence why lean is so hard to copyJun 17, 2008
By M and G
This book is a compelation of 38 short chapters that originally were spoken narratives with Taiichi Ohno. Jon Miller took these wonderful gems and then translated into English. There's also an excellent Publisher's Foreword and even better Afterword taken from Taiichi's 1st TPS textbook.
Some concepts are likely to be unpopular and/or counterintuitive, such as scolding subordinates in front of others or most people are wrong 30-40% of the time. As such, this book is not for beginners or junior associates to lean thinking and the Toyota Production System.
Pro:
-Covers a wide range of management topics that are applicable to just about any gemba, not just lean or factory environments
-Shares logic behind philosophies, handy as well as interesting
-Excellent translation, reads/flows well, with footnotes that explain interesting nuances that would only be understood if you were Japanese or if you were very familiar with the language and culture
-Hardcover of high quality... has weathered my handling well
Con:
-Expensive book given that it is so short (about 130 pages) and many pages between chapters contain 50% white space
Nuetral:
-As a narrative turned text, there's only one simple illustration (in the Sakkaku chapter I think) and no photos.
-Also the index could possibly be improved (e.g kaiaku, sakkaku, the individual Japanese elements of 5S, etc. missing). Perhaps a listing of all terms and their definitions would be a handy reference, but in all fairness to Mr. Ohno and Mr. Miller, I do not think this book is for beginners and does not affect the quality of the book or its message.
Bottom line: the text is insightful and interesting, highly recommended. It was intriguing to read how things such as SMED came about, in Ohno's own words. I like to think that the book's simplicity/brevity will force me to think deeply about what I want/need to do and to seek my own answers and not those of others, focusing on the basic principles and building from there.
8 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Maybe better than "Toyota Production System"Oct 22, 2007
By Bas Vodde
Taiichi Ohno's workplace management used to be pretty hard to get, but John Miller re-translated and re-published it so now it's available for a larger audience. The book contains content from some spoken interviews, so that makes it somewhat strange to read, at least in the beginning, but makes it actually nice.
This small book actually contains 38 chapters or which every one is one or two pages. Some of the chapters are extremely insightful in the way of thinking Taiichi Ohno used when thinking up ideas for the Toyota Production System. In this review I won't be able to go over all, so just highlight some point I really liked and remembered:
- Misconceptions Hidden within Common Sense explains that common sense is often actually not the right way of thinking and that you should follow your uncommon sense and try to think outside the accepted standard way of thinking (common sense)
- In "Wasted motion is not work" he explains that people make a mistake by thinking that "being at work" or "moving" you are actually "working". People ought to separate these so that they can improve their actual work.
- He makes strong points to make sure you make a difference between machine time and person time. If the machine is running then that's machine time and the person who is operating the machine can then do something different.
- In "Pitfall of cost calculations" he tries to show that you can prove whatever with cost calculations and that thats probably not the right way to make the decisions.
These are just examples of the huge amount of wisdom written in this small book. It's absolutely recommended and one of the books that I will re-read again and again to refresh my memory.
An absolute must.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Not suitable for beginnersApr 28, 2008
By Eric Schmitz
This book is - as mentioned bij others - a remarkable object, coming from one of the founder fathers of Toyota's Lean Adventure. The book is not written by him, but is the result of several discussions (or monologues) from Ohno. As such it is already possible to use as a study of Ohno himself.
However,I suppose that Ohno-san would not like to be a hero or a white knight. This is not lean thinking, where the real hero's are those who add real value to the endcustomer.
So, this book is of no help if you have not yet experienced by yourself what lean is or could be. Only when you experienced the long road to lean horizons, you can appreciate the thinkings and concerns of this man. This book will help you to reflect more deeply on problems and solutions. It will make it clear that lean is not an endpoint but a resentless never-ending marathon. Enjoy and suffer!
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Excellent readDec 28, 2008
By Ancient Warrior
"hpb"
This book is a must for anyone serious about understanding lean manufacturing in general and the Toyota Production System in particular. DO NOT read this first, or even second. Start with Womack's "The Machine That Changed the World," then do Liker's "The Toyota Way."
Next do Ohno's other book "Toyota Production System: Beyond Large Scale Production." Then you're ready for this one. This book will clarify and focus what you covered in the others, and it will be well worth all the reading. Ohno is the man who is almost single-handedly responsible for making Toyota such a dominant manufacturer; these are the principles behind that success, straight from the man himself.
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