A how-to guide to shortening delivery times, eliminating waste, improving quality, and reducing costs. It describes not only what to do, but includes many tools useful to the reader describing how to do it. It explores tools including kaizen, value stream mapping, takt time, determining optimum lot sizes, setup reduction and problem solving.

Lean manufacturing is the single most effective way to increase sales, cut costs, improve margins, and secure the future of a business. The problem is that the principles and philosophies of lean manufacturing are geared strictly to mass production operations and can be ineffective, even detrimental, for smaller job shops and make-to-order businesses. Now, Speed to Market delivers a proven approach for smaller suppliers who want to successfully cut their lead time and trigger profitable growth. Completely updated and expanded, the book explains how to: * Apply the principles of pull, flow, and the elimination of waste to every area of the company, at every stage from quotes to cash* Implement a continuous improvement process while sidestepping the typical implementation pitfalls* Ease scheduling problems* Improve performance and profitability using the book's practical concepts, process analysis tools, and perspective-enhancing techniques and much more

A Practical, Hands-on Guide to Lean Manufacturing This real-world resource offers proven solutions for implementing lean manufacturing in an enterprise environment, covering the engineering and production aspects as well as the business culture concerns. Filled with detailed examples, the book focuses on the rapid application of lean principles so that large, early financial gains can be made. How to Implement Lean Manufacturing explains Toyota Production System (TPS) practices and specifies the distinct order in which lean techniques should be applied to achieve maximum gains. Global case studies illustrate successes and pitfalls of lean manufacturing initiatives. Discover how to: Rigorously test and retest the state of your "leanness" with unique evaluators Develop and deploy plant-wide strategies and goals Improve speed and quality and dramatically reduce costs Reduce variation in the manufacturing system in order to reduce inventory Reduce lead times to enable improved responsiveness and flexibility Synchronize production and supply to the customer Create flow and establish pull-demand systems Perform system-wide and specific value-stream evaluations Generate a comprehensive list of highly focused Kaizen activities Sustain process gains Manage constraints and reduce bottlenecks Implement cellular manufacturing

A hands-on guide to adapting Lean principles and the Toyota Production System to high-mix/low-volume environments, Lean Production for the Small Company uses charts, pictures, and easy-to-understand language to describe the methods needed to improve processes and eliminate waste. It walks readers through the correct order of implementation and desc

Lean Thinking was launched in the fall of 1996, just in time for the recession of 1997. It told the story of how American, European, and Japanese firms applied a simple set of principles called 'lean thinking' to survive the recession of 1991 and grow steadily in sales and profits through 1996. Even though the recession of 1997 never happened, companies were starving for information on how to make themselves leaner and more efficient. Now we are dealing with the recession of 2001 and the financial meltdown of 2002. So what happened to the exemplar firms profiled in Lean Thinking? In the new fully revised edition of this bestselling book those pioneering lean thinkers are brought up to date. Authors James Womack and Daniel Jones offer new guidelines for lean thinking firms and bring their groundbreaking practices to a brand new generation of companies that are looking to stay one step ahead of the competition.

There are some very good books available that explain the Lean Manufacturing theory and touch on implementing its techniques. However, you cannot learn "how to be" lean from merely reading the theory. And to be successful in the real-work environment you need a clear comprehension of how lean techniques work, rather than just a remote understanding