As a consultant, Kiyoshi Suzaki has helped scores of Fortune 500 clients improve manufacturing operations and get the job done faster, cheaper, better, and safer. Now, in this detailed "operating manual" -- full of more step-by-step applications than any other book available -- Suzaki spells out new options in production and employee resources that can help American industry regain the cutting edge in price, quality, and delivery of products. A well-known expert in the field, Suzaki begins with the premise that "if it doesn't add value, it's waste" -- a concept devised by Henry Ford and later used by Toyota. He recaps what Toyota identifies as the seven most prominent forms of waste in factories. Most importantly, he meticulously details steps individuals can take to "simplify, combine, and eliminate operations" -- thereby reducing waste, improving quality, and saving money. Describing in detail the basic techniques culled from Japanese industrial philosophy and procedure, Suzaki shows how small, family-run businesses and billion-dollar American corporations from a wide range of industries -- automotive, electronics, cosmetics, and even defense contractors -- are meeting the manufacturing challenge today -- demolishing the widely held belief that most American manufacturers have become distribution organizations for products manufactured overseas. In addition, he links his methodology with several successful production systems, from Just-In-Time Production, Total Quality Control, Total Productive Maintenance to Computer Integrated Manufacturing. Throughout this practical handbook, he places emphasis squarely on the shop floor and grounds his approach in easy, yet powerful techniques everybody can understand and implement today. Illustrated with numerous charts and exhibits, The New Manufacturing Challenge shows how to integrate people and techniques to improve the workplace and, thus, strengthen any company's competitiveness in the global marketplace.

Here's the first book to give you a complete manufacturing strategy. Based on an in-depth study of the strategies and operating practices of dozens of leading manufacturers, this book describes a common framework for world-class manufacturers.

Focusing on the day-to-day operations of the U.S. armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, from 1798 to 1861, this book shows what the "new technology" of mechanized production meant in terms of organization, management, and worker morale. A local study of much more than local significance, it highlights the major problems of technical innovation and social adaptation in antebellum America. Merritt Roe Smith describes how positions of authority at the armory were tied to a larger network of political and economic influence in the community; how these relationships, in turn, affected managerial behavior; and how local social conditions reinforced the reactions of decision makers. He also demonstrates how craft traditions and variant attitudes toward work vis-à-vis New England created an atmosphere in which the machine was held suspect and inventive activity was hampered.Of central importance is the author's analysis of the drastic differences between Harpers Ferry and its counterpart, the national armory at Springfield, Massachusetts, which played a pivotal role in the emergence of the new technology. The flow of technical information between the two armories, he shows, moved in one direction only— north to south. "In the end," Smith concludes, "the stamina of local culture is paramount in explaining why the Harpers Ferry armory never really flourished as a center of technological innovation."Pointing up the complexities of industrial change, this account of the Harpers Ferry experience challenges the commonly held view that Americans have always been eagerly receptive to new technological advances.

Argues that the bias of mass media is largely created by its dependence on government and corporate bureaucracies as the main source of raw news material

This book provides an overview and a specific rationale for your initiative. It is an easy-to-digest reference to aspects of lean that you may not have known about. It's a virtual toolbox of information that can be readily put to use on the plant floor. It takes readers on a comprehensive, 'street-level' journey through the entire lean implementation process. It is an easy-to-digest reference of lean fundamentals and processes that are mission-critical to a successful lean transformation in any plant. The information in this book can be readily put to use on the plant floor. Specific chapters on mapping the value stream, policy deployment, the five-phase implementation process, and problem-solving crystallize concepts with a pragmatic approach. In addition, the brownfield implementation chapter is a must-read for anyone contemplating a lean changeover from traditional mass production.

Community development expert Ilana Preuss explains how local leaders can revitalize their downtowns or neighborhood main streets by bringing in and supporting small-scale manufacturing. Small-scale manufacturing businesses help create thriving places, with local business ownership opportunities and well-paying jobs that other business types can't fulfill.

The paradigm of manufacturing is undergoing a major evolution throughout the world. The use of computers, the Internet and new challenges related to the Industry 4.0 have changed the way we engineer and manufacture products. Improving production with Lean Thinking is an evolution of a traditional approach in order to improve its processes to remain competitive in the global market. Lean Manufacturing is a multidimensional approach that embraces a wide variety of management practices in a unified system. These practices contain, quality systems, team work, and supplier management, among others. Nowadays, other practices have been adopted such as human factors and ergonomics. This book presents contributions of Lean Manufacturing applications in the world development and is intended to provide a comprehensive view of issues related to this area, with a specific focus on lean engineering principles; it is full of practical production examples of how Lean Thinking can be applied effectively to production systems. This work was conceptualized for an audience of graduate students mainly; however, it can also be consulted by engineers and company managers who seek state-of-the-art applications on Lean Manufacturing within a wide diversity of scenarios and conditions. The book, organized into 17 chapters, is intended to be an excellent source for dissemination of applied researches, lean concepts, and practices that have been successfully applied in the developing world domain. The book is also an excellent example of academy purpose with collaboration between different institutions from different countries that provide a global approach. Maria João Viamonte, PhD ISEP's President