Lean Production for the Small Company

A hands-on guide to adapting Lean principles and the Toyota Production System to high-mix/low-volume environments, Lean Production for the Small Company uses charts, pictures, and easy-to-understand language to describe the methods needed to improve processes and eliminate waste. It walks readers through the correct order of implementation and describes problems and pitfalls along with time-tested solutions.

Explaining how to incorporate existing systems into a Lean strategy, the book starts with the fundamentals and builds on them to describe the full range of tools and processes needed to implement Lean. It outlines how to design factories for Lean manufacturing and demonstrates how to remove variations within business and manufacturing processes to achieve a smooth continuous flow of product that delivers your product on time to customers.

The tools, methods, and ideals discussed are applicable in any industry and all parts of your business―from manufacturing and sales to human resources. The text unveils new methods and tools that can help you reduce inventory, improve inventory turns, and facilitate raw material flow through the factory. It details how to use customer order demands to schedule the production floor, rather than using estimated production schedules. It also considers the accounting process and explains how to improve your cash-to-cash cycle time.

Drawing on the author’s decades of experience transforming high-mix plants to Lean, the text brings together coverage of the tools and processes that have made Toyota so successful. All the chapters in this book, when implemented, will result in a culture change that will transform your company into a learning organization that continuously eliminates waste and improves its processes.