Book Reviews

Henry Ford Learned from Sears & Roebuck?

I am reading a fascinating book called The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge. It traces the origin and development of the joint-stock company through the modern corporation and its impact on the world. At less than 200 pages it is highly more>>

Direct Instruction, Standardized Work and Kaizen

I learned about something called Direct Instruction in chapter seven of Super Crunchers by Ian Ayres. This book is a light and entertaining read on statistics and evidence-based decisions in marketing, education, healthcare and government policy. I recommend this to anyone who is interested in design of experiments, management by more>>

Change Leadership, Not Change Management

The Hithchhiker's Guide to Lean is one of the top 10 books on Lean thinking and a must read. We've never done a proper, full book review of Jamie Flinchbaugh and Andy Carlino's book. This is not that full review, but a reflection on one of the chapters in the more>>

Awareness of a Problem Does Not Mean Much

Reading The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb has been thought provoking. It is a book about the impact of the highly improbable events on our lives and on history, and why humans do not forsee such Black Swan events. There are many ideas in this book that are important more>>

Top 10 Books on Lean Thinking

Here is a highly subjective list of the top 10 books on Lean thinking. Toyota Talent: Developing Your People the Toyota Way by Jeffrey Liker and David Meier This book has the benefit of being new, and providing very practical and relevant means to addressing challenges faced both by Gemba more>>

Three Mini Reviews of Lean Books

And we're back. It's amazing what a lung full of chlorine vapors can do for reading time. Here's a travel tip, before we get started: When staying at a hotel, ask for a room other than the one directly above the pool, such that ceiling of pool = floor of more>>

Review of The Elegant Solution by Matthew E. May

The Elegant Solution: Toyota's Formula for Mastering Innovation by Matthew E. May is a book about many good ideas. It adds relevant and interesting accounts of the author's eight years working closely alongside Toyota people. The book offers a good balance of Toyota-isms examined in a new light, and favorites more>>

Reading Lean for Dummies

I just finished reading Lean for Dummies. It covers a lot of ground in 362 pages. It's full of diagrams, lists and other useful visuals. It is light and accessible reading. Parts IV "The Lean Enterprise" and Part V "The Part of Tens" are particularly valuable as reference and for more>>

The Seven Habits of Toyota People

The harder Toyota's overwhelming success becomes to ignore, the more books and articles are written about what makes them great. Many say the same thing, but in different ways. I've just started flipping through a Japanese book titled The Textbook of Toyota-style Work and I've already found something interesting. In more>>

The Starfish, the Spider and the Span of Five

I just finished reading The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman nd Rod A. Beckstrom. It is a quick read with some interesting ideas. I have a number of issues with the book, and by examining these issues we can learn something about more>>

Interview with Darius Mehri, Author of "Notes from Toyota-land"

Today we continue exploring the dark side of Lean as we interview Darius Mehri, author of Notes from Toyota-land. Darius is an American who spent three years working as an engineer in Japan at a Toyota group company. He changed the name of the company in his book to “Nizumi”. more>>

Book Review: One Small Step Can Change Your Life - The Kaizen Way

This is an excellent book for anyone willing to try a new approach to making an improvement in your life. It is a 180 page book with small pages, an easy read for a weekend or an airplane ride. The combination of ideas based in science, connections to Dr. Deming more>>