Expanded, updated, and more relevant than ever, this bestselling business classic describes a business system for the twenty-first century that is based on the Toyota (lean) model, which combines operational excellence with value-based strategies to produce steady growth through a wide range of economic conditions.
The firms profiled in Lean Thinking — from tiny Lantech to midsized Wiremold to niche producer Porsche to gigantic Pratt & Whitney — have kept on keeping on, largely unnoticed, along a steady upward path through the market turbulence and crushed dreams of the early twenty-first century. Meanwhile, the leader in lean thinking — Toyota — has set its sights on leadership of the global motor vehicle industry in this decade.
Instead of constantly reinventing business models, lean thinkers go back to basics by asking what the customer really perceives as value. (It’s often not at all what existing organizations and assets would suggest.)
Lean Thinking clearly demonstrates that these simple ideas can breathe new life into any company in any industry in any country. But most managers need guidance on how to make the lean leap in their firm. This book offers a new method of thinking, of being, and, above all, of doing for the serious long-term manager — a method that is changing the world.
