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This was a good read with a lot of interesting history on the Toyota Production System but its just that. The majority of the book is written about the evolution of TPS and what economic factors drove its creation. If your looking for a book on thought process that inspired Taiichi Ohno to develope the Toyota Production System then this is the book for you. But if you are looking for a book that gets into advanced TPS processes then I would not suggest it.
The purity of the original message is there, the evidences that Toyota Production System (TPS) is the way forward can be learned from it, directly from the written word of Ohno-San, without any buffers or later interpretations. Written in 1978, this book is starting to show its age in small details. On the other hand, it is the first book even written on what we now call Lean Management. Most importantly, you learn that TPS originates from Ford's writings in the 1920s. What has happened to USA that such sound lessons were forgotten for so many years.
I bought this book before attending a training on lean, etc. The book is poorly written, or poorly translated. I thought the book was going be like "The Goal", but I was disappointed. Maybe I still don't really get it. Some of the chapters don't make much sense, let alone being informative. I still think it's a must read for anyone who is studying TPS, I just think it can be written in a much more interesting format.
If you are interested in getting started in the Lean methodologies then this book is a must read. This is not a guide to create a lean enterprise, it was not meant to be one and I was going to judge it as if it was. I was going to give this book four stars, but I was going to be unfair with it. If you work in a manufacturing plant or are in management then the insight on this book will be valuable for the rest of your life. This is a great introduction to the Toyota Production System and lean philosophy, by nobody else but the architect of the system. It had been a long time since I read such a dense book about any subject. I recommend it to my boss along with the Toyota Way because I think we need to start implementing all the techniques and management principles, specially when it comes to Human Resource management and policies, that made the Toyota the world leader it is. A+.
The book is very good. But I am charged for an additional 10 euros by the mail delivery company for which I was not informed on the website. So be careful when buying a book from here.
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