We are nearing the final edits, layout and design work for Japanese consultant Ritsushi Tsukuda's book The Illustrated Toyota Production System. It was quite a popular item in Japan so we are happy to bring this to readers in English. To give you an idea of content, here is the Publisher’s Foreword:

The Toyota Production System (TPS) is now regarded worldwide as a management system and a business philosophy that combines high performance with sustainability. For most of us much remains to be learned about how to benefit form the past half century of experimentation and advancement of Toyota’s management system. The Illustrated Toyota Production System: A Lean Implementation Primer by Ritsushi Tsukuda combines a series of 46 lessons and more than 50 charts, diagrams and tables to illustrate the TPS.

This book approaches TPS from the perspective of the overall structure and thought process of TPS, built around the two pillars of just in time and jidoka. The three sections of the book then link other tools and aspects of TPS to how they support a high quality, high profit production system that relentlessly drives out waste by harnessing the creativity of people. The author explains the concepts concisely, often with enough depth and insight such that I am confident the reader will have many “a-ha!” moments as they turn the pages of this book.

This book is not a step-by-step “how to” guide for TPS implementation but rather a series of lessons and insights to be aware of in advance of TPS implementation. The more practical aspects of the Toyota Production System such as kaizen, industrial engineering (IE) techniques, and process analysis for manpower savings are illustrated in the second book of this series by the same author, also to be published by Gemba Press in 2008.

This book is a lean transformation primer because it gives you a broad understanding of the principles, systems and tools that make up the Toyota Production System as well as some of the underlying thinking. The information in this book is based on the author’s first-hand experiences implementing lean in Japan and will be a primer – an accelerating agent – to your lean transformation efforts.

And the table of contents:

Publisher’s Foreword
Author’s Preface
Translator’s Preface

Section 1: The Toyota Production System (TPS) Structure and Philosophy

1. TPS Aims for High Quality and High Profit by Eliminating Waste
2. The Secret of Toyota’s High Profit is their Philosophy of Making Things
3. Thorough Elimination of “3 mu” to Build a High Quality, High Profit System
4. True Efficiency vs. Apparent Efficiency
5. The Basic Philosophy about Waste at Toyota
6. Toyota’s Seven Types of Waste
7. The Steps for Elimination of Seven Types of Waste
8. How to Remove the Waste of Overproduction
9. Is Inventory Evil?
10. Why Do Companies Not Succeed at Zero Inventory Operation?
11. “Zero Inventory” Exposes Internal Problems
12. “Zero Inventory” Begins by Improving Inventory Accuracy
13. For the Improvement of Stocktaking Accuracy
14. Case Example of Stocktaking
15. The Overall Picture of TPS

Section 2: Just In Time

16. What is Just In Time?
17. Heijunka as a Prerequisite of Just In Time
18. Why Do Companies Not Succeed at Just In Time?
19. Making Processes Flow
20. What is Production Lead Time?
21. The Meaning of One-Piece Flow Production
22. What is the Required Takt Time for Production?
23. Withdrawal (Pull) by the Downstream Processes
24. What is the Kanban System?
25. The Types of Kanban
26. Enabling the Use of Kanban
27. Why Do We Practice 5S?
28. Sort is to Throw Away Unnecessary Things
29. Straighten is to Make Things Immediately Available
30. Sweep is to Focus and Thoroughly Implement
31. Key Points to Start Implementing TPS with 5S

Section 3: Jidoka, Or Automation with Human Intelligence (Autonomation)

32. What is Jidoka?
33. The Relationship between Jidoka and Just In Time
34. Why Do Companies Not Succeed at Jidoka?
35. Quality is Built in at the Process
36. Differences between Work Standards and Standard Work
37. Key Points for Standard Work
38. The Standard Work Combination Sheet and the Standard Work Sheet
39. Reasons Why Standard Work is Difficult to Establish
40. The Difference between Manpower Saving and Multi-process Handling
41. Flexible Manpower
42. The Difference between Rate of Operation and Operational Availability
43. Key Points for Setup Time Reduction
44. The Steps of Setup Time Reduction
45. The Importance of Maintenance
46. Safety Takes Precedence Over Everything Else

At about 130 pages this book will be available in June of this year as a paperback and will sell in the $35 range. The second volume, by the same author, focuses more on the practical tools and proven problem solving techniques in the lesson-plus-illustration format. These are the working titles of the chapters currently in translation by Mark Nagai:

Section 1: What is Kaizen?

1. Kaizen is Built on Respect for People
2. The Key to Toyota’s Outstanding Success
3. Sharing Information through Visualization
4. Sharing a Common Understanding of Work through Visual Management
5. Examples of Visual Management
6. Knowledge is Not Sufficient, Creativity is Needed
7. We Know Defects Are Waste, So Why Can’t We Kaizen the Defects?
8. Know the Time-tested and Proven Problem Solving Techniques
9. Kaizen Must be Workplace-centered (gemba)
10. Know the True Nature of the Defect
11. How to Find the Root Cause of Defects in the Workplace (gemba)
12. Getting Rid of the Waste of Inspection
13. The Causes of Careless Mistakes & the Pokayoke Concept
14. Three Approaches to Pokayoke
15. How to Cope with Unplanned Minor Stops of Equipment
16. How Can We Learn to See Waste?
17. What to Do When You Cannot Find Topics for Kaizen

Section 2: Industrial Engineering (IE) Methods are the Foundation of Kaizen at Toyota

18. What are IE Methods?
19. The First Step Towards Productivity Improvement is to Study the Work
20. What is Process Analysis?
21. What is Motion Analysis?
22. Reducing the Number of Motions Using Motion Economy Principles
23. Making Work Easier Using Motion Economy Principles
24. What are Standard Times?
25. Using the Work Sampling Method to Understand the Process
26. How to Use Work Sampling
27. How to Use the Random Timetables
28. Case Example of Analysis in a Workplace with Poor Visibility (Distribution Warehouse)
29. How to Find Waste within a Flow Process
30. How to do Line Balancing Analysis
31. How to Kaizen Line Balancing

Section 3: Achieving Manpower Savings by Analyzing Each Process

32. How to Recognize the Waste of Transportation
33. Aiming for Zero Transportation
34. Various Types of Transportation Methods in Use at Toyota
35. Don’t Overlook the Waste within Processing Time
36. Clarify the Roles of People and the Role of Machines
37. Enabling Multi-machine Operation at Injection Molding Plants
38. Education and Training Help People See Waste
39. Using Proven Problem Solving Techniques Helps to Expose Problems
40. We Reduced Our Machine Problems to Zero, So Why Can We Not Implement Multiple-machine Handling?
41. Develop the Powers of Observation so Busywork Does Not Fool You
42. Not Only Did We Succeeded with Multi-machine Handling and Manpower Saving, but the Work Became Easier
43. Points to Focus on When Performing a Large Number of Operations
44. Work Becomes Easier When Motion Economy Principles are Understood and Applied
45. Be Mindful of Small Details Such as Lighting

Section 4: Kaizen within Flow Lines Using Time Analysis

46. All the Wastes are Connected to the Waste of Waiting
47. The Concepts of Takt Time and Line Balancing
48. Operation Improvement through Continuous Time Analysis
49. Case Example of Time Analysis
50. How to Document the Time Analysis
51. Kaizen in Flow Line with Six Operators
52. Finding Hints for Kaizen Within Parts Drawings
53. Begin Kaizen by Using Proven Techniques
54. The Wonder of Video Analysis: Products are Made Faster than the Time of the Bottleneck Process
55. Eliminating Busywork and Non-Value Added Work
56. Doubling Productivity through Line Balancing by Applying Motion Economy Principles
57. Don’t Overlook the Seconds of Kaizen Opportunity
58. Find Waste in Work Elements by Using Motion Economy Principles
59. Waste of Motion and Waste of Waiting
60. Toyota-style IE is a Total Company Approach Linked Direct to Profit

Please check back for updates on the publication of this and other books on kaizen, lean management and the Toyota Production System.