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Volume 20, Number 19 • Copyright ©2003 Business Book Review, LLC • All Rights Reserved

Lean Thinking
Banish Waste and Create Wealth
in Your Corporation
Revised and Updated

James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones

©2003 James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones

Adapted by permission of Free Press
ISBN: 0-7432-4927-5

Reviewed by Lydia Morris Brown

Introduction
In 1990, Womack and Jones published The Machine That Changed the World, with the objective of sending a wake-
up call to organizations still struggling in the antiquated world of mass production. Thus, they showed that the lean
manufacturing approach pioneered by Toyota was a better way to organize and manage customer relations, the supply
chain, product development, and production operations. The overwhelming response from managers, employees, investors,
suppliers, and customers worldwide was “How do we do it? What are the key guiding principles for taking our outmoded
mass-production organizations and making them lean?”
The answer was Lean Thinking (1996), a concise and dependable action guide to lean thinking that many managers
began using immediately, despite the boom economy. However, with the recession of 2001, and the subsequent financial
meltdown of 2002, reader interest surged, providing clear evidence that companies were finding lean thinking even more
relevant than ever. Given this strong affirmation of the validity and effectiveness of the lean approach, Womack and Jones

Business Book Review™ Vol. 20, No. 19 • Copyright © 2003 Business Book Review, LLC • All Rights Reserved
Lean Thinking James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones

now offer a revised and updated edition. In it, they describe a
range of new implementation tools, track the steady advance
of lean thinking since 1996, and show how companies have
used this method to create real sustainable value for their
customers, their employees, and their owners.
PART I: THE PRINCIPLES OF LEAN THINKING
“Muda,” which is the Japanese word for waste, means
“any … activity which absorbs resources but creates
no value.” These activities can include: mistakes that
require correction; the production of unwanted items,
and the consequent pile up of inventories
and remaindered goods; unnecessary “Specifying value accurately is the critical first step in lean
processing steps; unnecessary movement thinking. Providing the wrong good or services the right way is
of employees and goods; downstream muda.”
idleness caused by upstream activities
that are not delivered on time; and goods and services that customers, and extract profits from upstream suppliers.
do not meet customer needs.
Although muda is everywhere, Womack and Jones
believe that lean thinking provides a powerful antidote
to this pervasive problem. According to their research,
lean thinking offers a way to specify value and line up
value-creating actions in the best sequence. It allows
these activities to be conducted without interruption, and society’s expectations about long-term employment and
performed more and more effectively, whenever someone
requests them. Lean thinking also provides a way to make
About the Authors
James Womack is founder and president of the
Lean Enterprise Institute, a nonprofit education and
research organization, dedicated to the spread of
lean thinking.
Daniel T. Jones is founder and chairman of the
Lean Enterprise Academy in the U.K., a nonprofit
organization affiliated with the Lean Enterprise
Institute, pursuing the same objectives in Europe.
They have collaborated on analyses of global
industrial trends for more than 20 years and are
the coauthors of The Machine That Changed the
World, Seeing the Whole, and The Future of the
Automobile.
For more information, please visit:
www.lean.org
www.leanuk.org
work more satisfying by offering immediate feedback
about everyone’s efforts to convert muda into value. And,
unlike process reengineering, it provides a way to create
new work rather than simply destroying jobs in the name
of efficiency.
Value is the critical point of departure for this approach.
But, it is value, as defined by the customer, and that is only
meaningful when expressed in terms of a specific good that
meets the customer’s needs at a specific price and time. This
type of value is, however, very difficult for producers to get
right. American executives tend to define value as clever
ways to eliminate jobs, divert revenues from downstream
In Germany, the engineer specifies value, pushing design
complexities and refinements that are of little interest to
anyone but the technical expert. And, in Japan, where
value is created is the primary concern. Most Japanese
firms begin the process of defining value by asking how
they can design and produce products at home and satisfy
stable supplier relations.
Womack and Jones note that in addition to these
national distortions, value is also distorted by the power
of preexisting organizations, technologies, undepreciated
assets, and outdated thinking about economies of scale.
Moreover, as value creation flows from firm to firm along
the value chain, each link tends to define value in ways that
fit its own specific needs. Thus, lean thinking “must start
with a conscious attempt to precisely define value in terms
of specific products with specific capabilities offered at
specific prices through dialogue with specific customers.”
It must also begin by specifying value in terms of the
whole product. Moreover, implementing such an approach
requires producers to talk to customers in new ways and
for firms along the value stream to talk to each other in
new ways. This is vital, for rethinking value is often the
key to finding more customers, and quickly finding more
customers, and making more sales, is critical to the success
of lean thinking.
Once the product has been defined, the most important
task in specifying value is to determine a target cost for

Business Book Review™ Vol. 20, No. 19 • Copyright © 2003 Business Book Review, LLC • All Rights Reserved Page 2
Lean Thinking
development, order-taking, and production activities, based
on the amount of resources and effort required to make
a product of given specifications and capabilities, “if all
the current visible muda were removed from the process.”
Because the lean enterprise’s target cost will be far below
the competitor’s, certain options are possible: Prices can be is also necessary to rethink specific work practices and
reduced, which is another way to increase sales volume and
utilize freed-up resources. Features or capabilities can be
added to the product—an additional way to increase sales.
Services can be added to create more value and jobs. The
distribution and service network can be expand, which also
increases sales. Or, profits can be used for new product
development.
Relentless scrutiny of the value stream (the second
principle of lean thinking), as a means of determining
whether every activity really creates any value for the
“The activities necessary to create, order, and produce a
specific product which can’t be precisely identified, analyzed,
and linked … cannot be challenged, improved (or eliminated
…), and, eventually, perfected.”
customer, is the key to meeting the target cost. Womack
and Jones define value stream as “the set of all the specific specialized equipment for making batches at high speeds
actions required to bring a specific product [increasingly
a combination of both a good and a service] through
the … critical management tasks of any business” and
identify three such tasks: (1) problem solving, which runs
from concept through detailed design and engineering to
production launch; (2) information management—from
order-taking through detailed scheduling to delivery; and
(3) physical transformation, proceeding from raw materials
to a finished product in the hands of the customer.
Value stream analysis, which identifies the steps along
the value stream that create unambiguous value as it is
perceived by the customer, also exposes enormous amounts
of muda. There is Type One muda—those activities that
create no value, but that are unavoidable, given current
technological and production assets. And, there is Type
Two muda—the nonvalue-creating that can be eliminated.
Once this latter type of activity is removed, companies can
then begin using flow, pull, and perfection techniques to
remove the remaining nonvalue-creating procedures.
With flow, the third principle of lean thinking, the
focus is on never losing sight of the actual object (i.e., the of business firms, and their linkages to each other, and to
specific design, order, or product itself) from inception
Business Book Review™ Vol. 20, No. 19 • Copyright © 2003 Business Book Review, LLC • All Rights Reserved
James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones
to the end user. However, this is only possible when
the traditional boundaries, in the form of jobs, careers,
functions, and/or firms, are ignored, and a lean enterprise
is formed that removes all impediments to the continuous
flow of the specific product or product family. Thus, it
tools to eliminate backflows, scrap, and stoppages so that
the design, order, and production of the specific product
can proceed continuously. Most managers believe that,
for the sake of efficiency, designs, orders, and products
must go “through the system”; however, these steps must
be undertaken simultaneously, and the system dismantled
altogether.
Although this approach sounds simple, the authors
warn that applying flow is not easy or automatic. Flow
thinking is counterintuitive because people tend to organize
work by functions and departments so that
activities can be performed more efficiently
and managed more effectively. In addition,
people believe that it makes even more sense,
in terms of efficiency, to perform like tasks
in batches and queues. Once function, departments, and
are put in place, the career aspirations of departmental
employees and the calculations of the finance department
work against switching over to flow.
Thus, it is difficult for managers to see the flow of value,
and, by the same token, to see the value of flow. And, once
they begin to see, they still must overcome many practical
problems in order to introduce flow fully and to sustain it.
Womack and Jones insist, however, that flow principles can
be applied to any activity (not just conventional, discrete-
product manufacturing) with dramatic results. They have
found that when all of the essential steps needed to get
a job done are lined up in a steady continuous stream,
without any wasted motions, interruptions, batches, and
queues, everything changes: The amount of effort, time,
space, tools, and inventories needed to design and offer a
particular good/service can typically be cut in half very
quickly. Steady progress can be maintained so as to cut
inputs in half again within a few years. And, how people
work together, the tools they use, the organizations created
to facilitate flow, the kinds of careers pursued, the nature
society as a whole, are transformed.
Page 3
Lean Thinking James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones

Nonetheless, despite its benefits, flow is not enough. results. The first step, and the most difficult, is simply to
The authors warn that if an organization uses this lean get started by overcoming the inertia that is commonly
technique to make unwanted goods flow faster, muda is still present in any established design or production facility,
the result. Thus, companies must learn the fourth principle operating with mass-production methods and systems
of lean thinking—how to pull—how to produce a good/ of social organization (what Womack and Jones call
service upstream only when the customer downstream brownfield organizations). This entails finding a change
asks for it. Womack and Jones believe that the best way agent, obtaining detailed lean knowledge, seizing or
to understand the logic and challenge of this approach is creating some kind of crisis that can serve as a change lever,
to start with a real customer, who has expressed a demand mapping the organization’s value stream, and implementing
for a real product, and to work backwards through all the radical improvement of value-creating activities in order to
steps required to fulfill that demand. eliminate muda (kaikaku, also called breakthrough kaizen,
Womack and Jones note that as organizations begin to flow kaizen,and/or system kaizen) and produce rapid results
specify value accurately, identify the value stream, create that the organization cannot ignore. In addition, as soon
continuous flow, and allow the customer to pull value as the first round of improvements has been obtained, it is
from the enterprise, everyone involves
“No matter how many times … employees improved a given
starts to understand that there is no end activity … they could always find more ways to remove muda
to the process of reducing effort, time, by eliminating effort, time, space, and errors. What’s more, the
space, cost, and mistakes. At the same activity became progressively more flexible and responsive to
time, they are able to do a better job customer pull.”
of offering what the customer wants.
This is perfection, the fifth and final principle of lean time to expand the scope by linking the different parts of
thinking. the value stream for a product family.
Perfection occurs because the first four principles The next step entails creating an organization which
interact with each other in a virtuous circle. When value can channel the flow of value and keep the stream running
flows faster, muda, hidden in the value stream, is exposed. freely. It will also be necessary to devise a practical strategy
As a company pulls harder, more and more impediments to utilize fully all of the resources being freed up. Thus,
to flow are revealed. Product teams in direct dialogue the business must be organized by product families, and
with customers can find more ways to specify value, more someone must be clearly in charge of each product. In
accurately, and learn of ways to enhance flow and pull even addition, a truly strong lean promotion function, which
more. The new process technologies and product concepts acts as the repository of the company’s hard-earned
that the elimination of muda sometimes demands are skills in lean thinking, must also be created. The authors
extremely simple and can be implemented immediately. suggest combining the quality assurance function with
The lean system is also transparent; subcontractors, the lean promotion function so that quality enhancement,
first-tier suppliers, system integrators (i.e., assemblers), productivity improvement, lead-time reduction, space
distributors, customers, employees—everyone—can see savings, and every other performance dimension of the
everything, which makes it easy to discover ways to business are considered equally and simultaneously. And,
create value. Moreover, a key feature of lean work, and a it is a good idea to devise a growth strategy that absorbs
powerful impetus to continuous improvement, is that the resources at the rate they are being freed up.
employees making the improvements receive instant and Because lean techniques can cut human effort in half,
highly positive feedback. the excess people must be removed from activities where
they are no longer needed; without this step, superior
PART II: AN ACTION PLAN performance cannot be sustained. And, though there must
The authors’ research has found that because all be a guarantee that no one will lose his or her job in the
companies (even Toyota), face the same challenges when future due to the implementation of lean thinking, those
embracing lean thinking, all must undertake a specific “anchor-dragging” managers, who refuse to give the new
sequence of steps and initiatives in order to get the best ideas a fair trial, must be removed quickly.
Business Book Review™ Vol. 20, No. 19 • Copyright © 2003 Business Book Review, LLC • All Rights Reserved Page 4
Lean Thinking James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones

Finally, it is critical that the change agent send the PART III: CREATING THE LEAN ENTERPRISE
message that “mistakes in pursuit of the right goal are As Womack and Jones have explained, when lean
not a failure. … [but] it’s not acceptable to do nothing thinking is introduced, problems and evidence of waste in
to improve your operation on the grounds that the risk of all operational areas are forced to the surface.
failure is too high.” The same is true of organizational difficulties. First, as
The third action-plan step is about installing business traditional functions that were key to career paths shrink,
systems that encourage lean thinking and make the many employees will begin to become anxious about
initiative self-sustaining. Once lean techniques have been their futures. Second, as more employees are placed in
put in place, proposals for more improvement will start development and production activities that focus on the
pouring in. Thus, it will be necessary to create a policy- present, there may be concern that these employees are
deployment mechanism for deciding what should be done losing their leading-edge capabilities. And, the third,
immediately and what can wait until more resources are and most striking issue, is that as a firm removes all the
available. Because a lean accounting system, which goes inventories and waste out of its internal value stream, it
further than activity-based accounting, will also be needed, will become more aware of the costs of and performance
the authors advocate value-stream/product-based costing. problems of other companies, including its suppliers, the
This system should include product development, selling, suppliers’ suppliers, and its distributors’ retailers. The
production, and supplier costs so that all the participants authors believe that effectively addressing these concerns
in the value stream can see clearly their collective efforts requires lean enterprise—the final organizational leap that
are, indeed, adding more value than cost. Compensation even Toyota has yet to take.
must be calculated so that people are paid in relation to The lean enterprise is defined as a “new mechanism
the performance of the firm. Internal performance must for looking at the whole, a channel for the value stream.”
be benchmarked, especially the rate of improvement, and a This new mechanism is a conference of all the firms
along the stream, which is assisted
“It’s vital to use the tools of policy deployment to reach agreement by technical staff from “lean
across your whole organization on the three or four lean tasks functions” in the participating firms,
your firm can hope to complete each year.”
and which conducts periodic rapid
“scoreboard” created, showing everyone in the value stream analyses and then takes “fast-strike”
exactly what is happening in real time. There needs to be improvement actions. Although the conference leader is the
a systematic method for teaching lean thinking to every firm bringing all of the designs and components together
employee in the firm and to the employees of customers into a complete product, the authors emphasize that all
and suppliers along the firm’s value stream. And, every conference participants are equal in the “fight” against
tool, ranging from huge factory machines to computer muda, the common enemy.
systems, must be rethought, with the objective of devising The lean enterprise is so constructed as a means of:
right-sized technologies that can be inserted directly into (1) specifying the correct value for the customer, while
the value stream for individual product families. avoiding the natural inclination of each firm along the
After three to four years of strenuous effort, the firm stream to define value in a way that favors its own role
should be well on its way to a comprehensive transformation. in providing value; (2) identifying all the actions required
However, to make it complete, the following action steps to bring a product from conception and raw material
are needed: making sure that suppliers and distributors are to delivery and on through its useful life; (3) removing
also implementing lean thinking, developing a lean global any action that does not create value, and making value-
strategy that allows the creation of value as close to the creating actions proceed in continuous flow as pulled by
customer as possible, and making lean thinking automatic the customer; and (4) analyzing the results, starting the
and bottom-up, rather than merely top-down. evaluation process over again, and continuing this cycle
throughout the life of the product/product family as a core
activity of management.

Business Book Review™ Vol. 20, No. 19 • Copyright © 2003 Business Book Review, LLC • All Rights Reserved Page 5
Lean Thinking James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones

Because the characteristics and objectives of the lean “alternating career” approach be devised in which
enterprise seem obvious, many might assume that the employees rotate between applying what they know within
approach is commonplace. The authors note, however, the team context and taking time out to learn new skills in a
that this is not the case, primarily because the act of functional setting. They warn, however, that this approach
jointly analyzing every action needed to develop, order, is only effective if departments and functions are rethought
and produce a good/service makes every firm’s costs along with career paths. Accordingly, they propose that,
transparent. But, value stream participants have historically as lean enterprises are created to channel value streams,
cooperated at the minimum level necessary to get a product traditional functions should no longer perform most of
made. Moreover, they have guarded their privacy so as to their traditional tasks: Engineering should not perform
keep the other parties ignorant of what they are up to, and routine product engineering. Purchasing should not make
what it costs, so that they can grab a financial “jackpot.” individual purchase decisions nor hold the supplier’s hand
Womack and Jones believe that this state of industrial in getting products to launch. Operations should not direct
“cold war” will only end if all parties willingly negotiate employees in day-to-day production activities. And, quality
a set of principles to guide their joint behavior and also should not conduct detailed product audits nor engage in
devise a mechanism for verifying
“The great challenge … is to overcome their ‘every firm for itself’
that everyone is abiding by these
individualism in which each organization along the value stream
principles. Thus, the following is
optimizes its own stretch while suboptimizing the whole.”
suggested: (1) Value must be defined
jointly for each product family, and a target cost set, based “firefighting” initiatives in order to eliminate problems
on the customer’s perception of value. (2) All firms along with a specific product. These are all tasks for the dedicated
the value stream must make an adequate return on the product teams to deal with as they arise.
investments they make that are related to the value stream. Meanwhile, product engineering should work on new
(3) The participants must work together to identify and technologies that allow products to do new things for the
eliminate muda to the point where the target costs and user. It should also develop new materials and methods that
ROI investment goals of each firm are met. (4) When cost make it possible to eliminate steps and reduce fabrication
targets are met, the stream participants must immediately costs. Tool engineering should work on “right-sizing”
conduct new analyses to identify remaining muda and set devices (from computers to production hardware) so that
new targets. (5) As part of the joint search for waste, every product teams can create value in continuous flow and make
participant has the right to examine every activity in every rapid shifts between product variants. Purchasing should
firm relevant to the value stream. identify the set of suppliers the firm will work with in the
In the lean enterprise, employees are assigned, for long term. And, it should develop a plan for each supplier
the most part, to particular product teams so that they that ensures that each has the technologies and the design/
can apply their skills to the value stream. More often than production capabilities needed to attain the highest-quality
not, the authors have found that this work is much more performance. Finally, quality should develop a standard
rewarding than work in the “previously disconnected world set of methods that the product team can apply to ensure
of departmentalized batches and queues.” Nonetheless, the that every product is right every time, with no backflows
lack of perceived career progress upward through and no “escapes” of bad products to the customer. In fact,
such functions as engineering, sales, purchasing, the traditional quality function should be combined with a
scheduling, quality auditing, centralized information productivity (i.e., lean) function to create an “improvement
systems, accounting, etc., and the possibility of losing function” that is able to eliminate all sorts of muda.
one’s skills, may be discouraging. Moreover, it may In addition, every function should provide a “home” to
also be of no benefit to the company if employees lose employees who have the needed technical specializations—
their edge because they are spending time applying this would include production workers, who must become
what they already know to standard problems. operations specialists, able to detect and eliminate muda.
Thus, Womack and Jones suggest that a new A primary responsibility of each function would be

Business Book Review™ Vol. 20, No. 19 • Copyright © 2003 Business Book Review, LLC • All Rights Reserved Page 6
Lean Thinking
to systematize current knowledge and procedures and
teach these to function members as needed. The other
responsibility would be to search for new knowledge and
package it in a form that can be taught on a Just-In-Time
basis.
In this entire scenario, the authors envision functions
as “the hills and mountains forming the valley for the value
stream.” Thus, they believe that firms must take on the role
of providing the link between the streams as a means of
making maximum use of the technologies and capabilities
accumulated by each firm’s technical functions. Companies
must also be the means by which people, space, and tools
are shifted from the value streams that no longer need these
resources to value streams that do. As a result, most firms
will participate in multiple streams, often with different
upstream partners and downstream partners.
* * *
A glossary, bibliographic notes by chapter, a
bibliography, and a subject index are provided.
Remarks
The first edition of the now classic Lean Thinking was
published in 1996 and sold in the hundreds of thousands.
Now, seven years later, Womack and Jones are more certain
than ever that the theory and practice of lean thinking is an
even more powerful tool for eliminating waste and creating
value. Despite uncertain markets and economies, and
despite the crash and burn of some “superstar” enterprises,
the examples of lean, they originally published, have
continued to create increasing, sustainable value for all their
stakeholders. Thus, the authors offer this revision/update
to encourage previous readers to renew their commitment
to lean principles and to persuade new readers to join the
ever-increasing network of lean executives. Womack and
Jones are firing another round in their decade-long battle
to win over intractable mass producers.
So, what’s new? The first three sections of the book
are as they appear in the first edition. Part I describes the
five fundamental principles of lean thinking and explains
their application. Part II address the reader’s need to have a
detailed plan suited to his or her unique realities in a range of
businesses and industries, including service organizations.
Business Book Review™ Vol. 20, No. 19 • Copyright © 2003 Business Book Review, LLC • All Rights Reserved
James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones
Here, the authors describe their findings and prescribe a
practical plan of action, culled from more than four years
of investigating 50-plus firms. They offer examples of
some well-known giants, some small companies, some
low-volume producers, some high-volume automakers,
some “high-tech” enterprises, and some firms with mature
technologies.
Womack and Jones believe that even readers, who think
they have embraced lean thinking, will discover that another
mega-leap is possible if they create a lean enterprise for each
of their product families. Thus, Part III closely scrutinizes
this mega-mechanism and then ruminates about the next
leaps into lean that have yet to be taken. The hope is that
readers will come up with a pioneering idea or two of their
own, inspired by the authors’ vision of what some major
economic activities (e.g., long-distance travel, medical
care, food production and distribution, construction, and
“short-range personal mobility” [i.e., the automobile]) can
look like when value-stream thinking completely replaces
batch-and-queue thinking in these industries.
Part IV is new, and brings the story of lean thinking
up to date. It tracks the progress of Toyota, Porsche,
Lantech, and Pratt & Whitney—companies profiled in
the first edition—to show how “our lean exemplars—led
by Toyota—have defied the fate of most firms featured in
successful business books.” It provides an enhanced action
plan, based on the experiences of many lean companies
since the original publication. And, it offers a range of new
implementation tools.
The result is a fully stocked first-aid kit full of long-
term antidotes to process engineering, senior-management
financial mind-sets, technology for technology’s sake,
forecasting, working harder and longer, economic
stagnation, benchmarking, the vagaries of business cycles,
and the need to reinvent business models. Womack and
Jones, indeed, have a grand purpose. First, they want readers
to become real change agents (with the right spirit and a
willingness to invest at least five years in implementing a
lasting lean revolution) rather than “Conan-the-Barbarian”
self-promoting technocrats “with no concern for the very
real issues inherent in the transition.” Their guidelines
are purposefully not conducive to consultants with no real
understanding of the roots of lean thinking and no grasp of
the logic. Thus, their objective is to overcome the cynicism
fueled by the proliferation of quick-fix-one-minute-
Page 7
Lean Thinking
management programs and to offer a new way of thinking,
being, and doing for the “serious long-term manager.”
Second, Womack and Jones want companies to seize
the opportunities inherent in the recession of 2001-2003 and
become the next wave of lean thinkers, pushing the whole
economy forward. Their hope is that enough investors,
managers, employees, and “change agent heroes” will
ultimately emerge to create a worldwide movement in
lean thinking. Throughout the book, the authors note that
the practice is by no means widespread—even in Japan;
however they show, unequivocally, that lean thinking works
and can be applied to simple enterprises as well as complex
corporate entities, in the U.S., Germany, and Japan—the
three major industrial traditions.
Reading Suggestions
Reading Time: 22-24 Hours, 396 Pages in Book
As always, Womack and Jones are instructive,
provocative, and compellingly readable, allowing even
those who have produced and distributed nothing more
complicated than flyers for the company picnic—no mater
what business the company is in—to gain invaluable and
practical insight and understanding. Still, Lean Thinking is
not, nor should it be, a quick read. The book is heavily laden
(without being bogged down) with comprehensive details
that cannot be adequately absorbed on the run.
If you have read the first edition, you could,
theoretically, just read the new section. The authors have
merely corrected a few minor errors and omissions in the
original, and have been careful to leave the pagination
unchanged, so as to ensure that the two editions can be easily
interchanged. Nonetheless, Womack and Jones are careful to
note at every turn that lean thinking is, by its very nature,
counterintuitive (in fact this characteristic is a key premise
of the work); thus, it’s probably safe to say that most readers
could not possibly have fully understood its full implications
the first time around. The book’s strong conceptual
underpinning and detailed examples/case studies demand
a serious revisit. However, if you insist in skipping right
to the new chapters, we insist that you use “Preface to the
2003 Edition,” “Preface to the First Edition,” the glossary,
and the detailed bibliographic notes as a refresher course
Business Book Review™ Vol. 20, No. 19 • Copyright © 2003 Business Book Review, LLC • All Rights Reserved
James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones
before plunging ahead. We also recommend that you take
the bibliography seriously and get busy broadening your
understanding of lean thinking and lean techniques.
Of course, the obvious approach for new readers is
to begin at the beginning and read the entire work in the
order presented. Make good use of the glossary. Read the
bibliographic notes thoroughly, either as you read each
chapter, after finishing a chapter, or after reading the
entire book. And, begin working through the bibliography
as soon as possible.
Although the book provides an invaluable conceptual
perspective and insightful practical guidelines, they are not
enough for the lean-manufacturing novice to implement
lean thinking. Thus, we suggest delving into the Website—
www.lean.org—where you will find information about
workshops/training seminars, and where you can obtain
lean-technique workbooks and training kits. You will also
find an electronic community where members share lean
practices/knowledge and are provided access to a library/
archives and links to other resources. This should give you
a good start down the road to lean.
CONTENTS
PART 1: LEAN PRINCIPLES
Chapter 1: Value
Chapter 2: The Value Stream
Chapter 3: Flow
Chapter 4: Pull
Chapter 5: Perfection
PART 2: FROM THINKING LEAN TO ACTION
Chapter 6: The Simple Case
Chapter 7: A Harder Case
Chapter 8: The Acid Test
Chapter 9: Lean Thinking versus German Technik
Chapter 10: Mighty Toyota; Tiny Showa
Chapter 11: An Action Plan
PART 3: LEAN ENTERPRISE
Chapter 12: A Channel for the Stream; a Valley for the
Channel
Chapter 13: Dreaming About Perfection
PART 4: EPILOGUE
Chapter 14: The Steady Advance of Lean Thinking
Chapter 15: Institutionalizing the Revolution
Appendix: Individuals and Organizations Who Helped
Page 8
Lean Thinking James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones

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