| | |  | Lean | Home » » » The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production-- Toyota's Secret Weapon in the Global Car Wars That Is Now Revolutionizing World Industry | | | | | | | Description: | | When The Machine That Changed the World was first published in 1990, Toyota was half the size of General Motors. Today Toyota is passing GM as the world's largest auto maker and is the most consistently successful global enterprise of the past fifty years. This management classic was the first book to reveal Toyota's lean production system that is the basis for its enduring success.Now reissued with a new Foreword and Afterword, Machine contrasts two fundamentally different business systems -- lean versus mass, two very different ways of thinking about how humans work together to create value. Based on the largest and most thorough study ever undertaken of any industry -- MIT's five-year, fourteen-country International Motor Vehicle Program -- this book describes the entire managerial system of lean production. Nearly twenty years ago, Womack, Jones, and Roos provided a comprehensive description of the entire lean system. They exhaustively documented its advantages over the mass production model pioneered by General Motors and predicted that lean production would eventually triumph. Indeed, they argued that it would triumph not just in manufacturing but in every value-creating activity from health care to retail to distribution. Today The Machine That Changed the World provides enduring and essential guidance to managers and leaders in every industry seeking to transform traditional enterprises into exemplars of lean success. | | | Features: | |
• ISBN13: 9780743299794
• Condition: USED - Very Good
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| James P. Womack | | Paperback:
| 352 pages | | Publisher:
| Free Press | | Publication Date:
| March 13, 2007 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0743299795 | | Package Length:
| 8.3 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.4 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.0 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.6 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 10 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
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 Still a good read, but twenty years old, and showing its ageAug 17, 2010
This book shows its age. Published in 1990, the insights that grabbed attention then struggle to be relevant today. Even in just the three years since this new edition was published, the carmaking industry has gone through dramatic changes that make this book into a history that has little connection to current events.
Still, history books can help. The authors try to make their case for relevance in the 2007 Foreword, new to this edition. And they clean up some errors in their past edition in a 2007 Afterword, also new.
But the foreword and afterword add little, and nothing in the book itself has changed. Be aware, then, that you are buying a 20-year-old book.
But in whatever edition, the book makes great reading for those interested in the car industry.
There are faults in the book. The title sets the tone the authors carry throughout the book. A little too much glorifying. A little too much hype. Yes, what Toyota and others did was impressive. But no, they did not change the world. In my opinion, not even close.
Now, of course, we know that Japanese executives and managers are mere mortals too. Toyota has certainly done better than most Japanese companies over the last 15 years. And part of the reason -- a big part probably -- has been the effectiveness of their management in areas like lean production. But even without the benefit of the hindsight we now have, the authors of this book should have realized that their unstinted praise was not warranted. Even for the brains behind Toyota.
Still, this book is the best I have found on the history of the "Industry of Industries." It traces the history of the automobile industry from craft production to mass production to lean production. No other book I have read has done that so well.
And for an academic book, The Machine That Changed the World is easy to read. It keeps a careful balance between informing the reader and keeping the reader's interest. Most writers, particularly of works like this, tilt too much one way or the other. Either too dry and pedantic or too light and entertaining. A happy medium is hard to achieve.
Where does the auto industry go from here? Lean production is no longer exceptional. It has become the rule. But it seems to have run its course.
The future of the automobile industry may lie in "collaborative production." Major automakers concentrate on sales and service, not production. Suppliers develop specialized skills in technologies from hybrid power trains to drive-by-wire control systems. And everyone sells to everyone else. Technology becomes less important than brand.
If that is the case, Toyota may still lead the pack. In Business Week's list of the top 100 global brands, Toyota leads all carmakers at number 7. No one has caught Toyota napping on the increasing importance of brand.
Even so, Toyota fiercely defends the idea that is a motor company, not a sales company. Innovative technology and excellent manufacturing have been much more of a focus than sales. Will it be able to adapt if the industry does change?
An interesting question that we should see answered in the next few years. Like many good history books, The Machine That Changed the World gives us hints as to what that future will be.
A Great Introduction to Lean ProductionJun 22, 2010
This book was a great introduction to the concept of lean manufacturing. The writing style of the book is comprehensive enough to be useful for current managers, yet readable enough to be engaging for those who are new (i.e. students) to these concepts. Those who are more savvy in the area of operations and supply management may find the book a bit repetitive in some areas.
Although the book focuses on auto manufacturers (mainly Toyota), a reader should not expect a detailed account of Toyota's supply chain or operations management, but rather a survey of concepts and a view of how Toyota has applied these methods and/or how other auto manufacturers have lagged on applying these techniques. The book provides many comparisons to assist the reader in understanding (the general approach per chapter is to give an overview of the mass production system, and then give its improved lean production counterpart). The book does not give any practically methodology on how to convert a non-lean production system over to a lean one, but there are many other books out there that can delve into this further.
If you are looking for a book to introduce you to lean production, written in laymen's terms, using a model that almost all of us can understand I strongly recommend this book. However, you will need more background/research than this book provides to actually apply lean operations methodologies if you so desire.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 The MachineMay 01, 2010
This book is the basis for all LEAN. A Must read for all in business.
Lean foundationsJan 11, 2009
This book contains all the seeds of the Lean Production Ideas. A must for the serious Lean Practitioner. This is the most influential book on the subject. However it needs a great deal of study and deep understanding but it's worth it for the insight and Lean foundations it provides.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
The truth about DetroitDec 17, 2008
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.
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