Lean Manufacturing for the Small Shop

Customer Reviews

We are proud to announce that "Lean Manufacturing for the Small Shop" was honored by the Shingo Prize Committee this year (2002). Considered the Nobel Prize for manufacturing, the Shingo prize is named after the famed Japanese Engineer Shigeo Shingo credited for playing a key role in the turnaround of Toyota.

We hope that this book honors Mr. Shingo as well as the thousands of Agents of Change for Continuous Improvement who follow his lead.

The ideas are more practical in the present book and tell you how to organise and plan for expension. The ideas are well presented and involve organizing the shop around processes, production volume, and quality. It does have some good sections on the transition that a shop must make as employees and product volume are increased to go from a job shop to increased production levels, i.e.: the organization for 3 employees versus 15 versus 60 as an example - but I use just approximate numbers here. It tells how to lay out the shop, how to organize production, how to integrate assembly and parts, inventory control and explains how a shop would work with buffer inventory.

The book is recommended as a buy if you run or manage a small to medium operation or are thinking of expanding or reorganizing to make the shop more efficient. In any case I would suggest that a quick read is worthwhile. For what it is I would call the book good and rate it in the three or four star range. For the money you cannot go wrong and it might give some new ideas.

Jack in Toronto

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