Books to Help Your Kaizen Journey

Problem Solving through A3 Learning

John is author of "Managing To Learn", awarded the 2009 Shingo Prize for excellence in manufacturing research and publication, which exposes Toyota's management, problem solving, leadership and mentoring processes. He is co-author with Toshiko Narasawa of "Kaizen Express", and with Mike Rother of "Learning To See", winner of the 1998 Shingo Prize. John was lead author of the "Lean Lexicon" and "Mapping To See". Other notable writings include Sloan Management Review articles, "How To Change a Culture -- NUMMI" (recipient of the Richard Beckhard Award for best article in SMR in 2011) and "Toyota's Secret: The A3 Report", notable book chapters "Bringing The Toyota Production System to America" in "Becoming Lean" edited by Jeffrey Liker and "Lean Product and Process Development" in the "Routledge Guide to Lean Management".

Winner of the 2003 Shingo Prize!

Creating Level Pull

Creating Level Pull shows you how to advance a lean manufacturing transformation from a focus on isolated improvements to improving the entire plant-wide production system by implementing a lean production control system. Lean efforts at most companies focus on point kaizen (e.g., reducing set up times, implementing 5S, etc.) that improves a small portion of the value stream running from raw materials to finished products. Or they focus on flow kaizen that improves the entire value stream for one product family. Creating Level Pull shows how companies can make the leap to system kaizen by introducing a lean production control system that ties together the flows of information and materials supporting every product family in a facility.

Making Materials Flow

Learning to See: Value Stream Mapping to Add Value and Eliminate MUDA

Much more important, these simple maps - often drawn on scrap paper - showed where steps could be eliminated, flows smoothed, and pull systems introduced in order to create a truly lean value stream for each product family.

In 1998 John teamed with Mike Rother of the University of Michigan to write down Toyota's mapping methodology for the first time in Learning to See. This simple tool makes it possible for you to see through the clutter of a complex plant. You'll soon be able to identify all of the processing steps along the path from raw materials to finished goods for each product and all of the information flows going back from the customer through the plant and upstream to suppliers. With this knowledge in hand it is much easier to envision a "future state" for each product family in which wasteful actions are eliminated and production can be pulled smoothly ahead by the customer.

Real Lean vs Fake Lean

Fantastic Account of Two Companies with Very Different Cultures
Avoiding the Continuous Appearance Trap: 12 Questions to Understand What’s Truly Underneath Your Culture is a transformational book that weaves together the stories of two companies that, on the surface, appear to be quite similar. Underneath, however, they couldn’t be more different. There is a devastating distinction between being a company dedicated to continuous improvement and being one that’s about “continuous appearance” instead. The 12 questions that Patrick Adams outlines in his debut book for business leaders give readers the ability to assess their operations. At last, a practical guide to better understanding your company’s leadership and culture.

Step inside “Company Continuous Improvement” and its counterpart, “Company Continuous Appearance.”