The Machine that Changed the World

The Machine that changed the world by James Womack , Daniel Roos and Dan Jones is the result of a lengthy 5 year study by MIT into into the rise of Toyota as a global Automotive company. It is the book that introduced the west to what we know as Lean Manufacturing as well as coming up with the term "lean".

The Toyota Production System (TPS) has been shown to have helped Toyota to outperform all other car manufacturers in the world making them one of the most successful companies ever! This book examines how Toyota achieves these successes and introduces us to Lean.

MIT conducted a five year study of the automotive industry across 14 countries as part of their International Motor Vehicle Program. The findings were shocking when you compared the performance of Toyota against the other major car manufacturers around the world when looking at almost every aspect of the industry.

Toyota were far more productive, even in plants that were built outside of Japan and staffed and managed by the local workforce. Their quality performance was far in excess of any other, even the Germans who were renowned for their attention to detail, and their profitability was huge!

The reason for the difference was what Toyota call the Toyota Production System, what the authors dubbed "Lean Manufacturing." They called it "Lean" because it used less of anything than any other system.

The authors showed the rise from craft based manufacturing where no two products were the same to mass production techniques as practiced by Ford and GM. However the Japanese were now practicing "Lean Manufacturing" and were heavily benefiting from the advantages given.

Working in the Automotive Industry from the 1980's I read this book when it first came out and the facts and figures contained within it were horrifying to someone that was working in the west and trying to compete with the Japanese.

It was clear that the Japanese were outperforming us in every way and the book went a long way to explaining how and why this was the case. It was the first book that really opened my eyes as a young engineer as to what needed to be changed.

The book itself can be a little heavy going in places but is a good read never the less, if you want to get a good understanding of how Toyota went about beating its competition overseas and succeeded then this is the place to start.

Don't however expect to find detailed instructions regarding the various lean manufacturing tools or how to go about implementing lean manufacturing in your company.

A "Scholarly" review of the Machine that Changed the World can be found here within the journal of technology and education, and a very helpful and comprehensive review can be found within the "Business Library."

A look at reviews would not be complete without a review from MIT where the research was originally conducted so here is an MIT Review of the book.

An except from the book can be read by following the following link (Machine that changed the world except).

The Machine that Changed the World details out what they authors believe are the five main principles of Lean Manufacturing;

• Identify Value
• Identify and create the value stream
• Make the Value flow
• Pull value through the system
• Strive for perfection.

But just what is Lean Manufacturing? It is not a method to just strip out the seven wastes and people from the organization as some people think. It is a philosophy based on implementing Just in Time (JIT) and Jidoka on a firm foundation of standardized working methods created through various lean manufacturing tools such as 5S.

One of the Co-Authors of the Machine that Changed the World is Daniel Roos, Daniel still continues to work for MIT and is responsible for their Portugal program and is still very much an active member of MIT. More can be discovered about Daniel by clicking through to his profile at MIT.

James Womack is one of the Authors of the Machine that Changed the World, he went on to be the chairman of the Lean Enterprise Institute in the USA, a position now held by John Shook. You can discover more about James and the institute and their work by following this link; James Womack at the LEA.

Another book written by James Womack (with Dan Jones) is "lean Thinking" and I recommend reading this book if you are serious about implementing Lean within your organization.

Daniel Jones is now the founder and chairman of the Lean Enterprise Academy in the UK and is a strong advocate for the introduction of Lean techniques. He has continued to author books with James Womack as indicated above.

Another book that this pair have written is "Seeing the Whole Value Stream" and should be read by anyone contemplating doing Value Stream mapping.

If you want to read this insightful book or if you have already read the Machine that Changed the World and been introduced to Lean Manufacturing feel free to leave a comment below.