Becoming Lean

• 1. Introduction: Bringing Lean Back to the U.S.A.2. Bringing the Toyota Production System to the United States: A Personal Perspective3. Japanese Education and Its Role in Kaizen4. Lean Manufacturing Practices at Small and Medium Sized U.S. Parts Suppliers: Does it Work?5. Transforming a Plant to Lean in a Large, Traditional Company: Delphi Saginaw Steering Systems, GM6. Making Leather Leaner: The Garden State Tanning Story7. Learning About Lean Systems at Freundenberg-NOK: Where Continuous Improvement Is a Way of Life8. The Donnelly Production System: Lean at Grand Haven9. Implementing Lean Manufacturing at Gelman Sciences,Inc.10. Cedar Works: Making the Transition to Lean11. Operational Excellence: A Manufacturing Metamorphosis at Western Geophysical Exploration Products12. The Success and Failures of Implementing Continuous Improvement Programs: Cases of Seven Automotive Parts Suppliers13. Lean Production-The Challenge of Multidimensional Change14. Crossroads: Which Way Will You Turn on the Road to Lean?15. Conclusion: What We Have Learned About Becoming Lean

"Becoming Lean implies a journey. We will reach our destination when we apply the philosophies underlying lean to develop our own lean system. There's no reason not to start trying. There are no experts, just people with more experience. The longer we wait, the more experience our competitors will have when we start."John Y. Shook, Director, Director, Japan Technology Management Program, U of Michigan 06/01/04"Becoming Lean fills an urgent need by describing in great detail the initial steps taken by a number of pioneering American firms in a range of industries to introduce lean thinking. Change agents actually leading the effort describe precisely what worked and what didn't."James Womack, Author of The Machine that Changed the World 06/01/04