Book Description
The Toyota Way Fieldbook is a companion to the international bestseller The Toyota Way. The Toyota Way Fieldbook builds on the philosophical aspects of Toyota's operating systems by detailing the concepts and providing practical examples for application that leaders need to bring Toyota's success-proven practices to life in any organization. The Toyota Way Fieldbook will help other companies learn from Toyota and develop systems that fit their unique cultures.
The book begins with a review of the principles of the Toyota Way through the 4Ps model-Philosophy, Processes, People and Partners, and Problem Solving. Readers looking to learn from Toyota's lean systems will be provided with the inside knowledge they need to
- Define the companies purpose and develop a long-term philosophy
- Create value streams with connected flow, standardized work, and level production
- Build a culture to stop and fix problems
- Develop leaders who promote and support the system
- Find and develop exceptional people and partners
- Learn the meaning of true root cause problem solving
- Lead the change process and transform the total enterprise
The depth of detail provided draws on the authors combined experience of coaching and supporting companies in lean transformation. Toyota experts at the Georgetown, Kentucky plant, formally trained David Meier in TPS. Combined with Jeff Liker's extensive study of Toyota and his insightful knowledge the authors have developed unique models and ideas to explain the true philosophies and principles of the Toyota Production System.
Customer Reviews:
Toyota Way Fieldbook.......2007-10-09
Great addition to the Toyota Way book. Includes interesting tools to help implement and sustain principles.
Excellent Lean Mfg Reference Book.......2007-09-28
For those interested in learning about a Lean environment, this is probably one of the best references.
Implementing Lean Principles.......2007-07-19
This is an excellent on how to implement lean in a manufacturing facility. The plant leadership at our site has used this book to start a bookclub, reading one chapter a week and reviewing it the next. I wish we would have read this book sooner. It would have help to reduce a lot of frustrations. The book also covers Toyota's leadership structure and suggests how to go about implementing lean on the shopfloor if you are just beginning the journey.
Practical and useful "how to" companion to the Toytota Way.......2007-07-16
Book description: what's the key message?
While Jeffrey Liker's book The Toyota Way was an examination of the 14 Principles of the Toyota Way, it was not an explicit "how to" guide at a tactical level. This follow up book is intended as the more practical guide to Becoming Lean (to borrow the title of an earlier book written by Liker). The Fieldbook is organized in the framework of Toyota's 4 P's:
* Philosophy
* Process
* People and Partners
* Problem Solving
The book starts first with "philosophy," not lean tools. It develops an important relationship between the two. The book, in its entirety, emphasizes that copying Toyota tools, regardless of how thoroughly, is not enough to become lean. Early chapters talk about defining your company's purpose and philosophy, providing many examples of Toyota's purpose and unique view of their place in society and the world. From there, the Fieldbook guides you through a reasonable progression of lean topics and methods to work with in your own company. While there is no simple linear progression through a lean transformation, the authors address the challenge well in structuring the flow of the book. Typical "early" stages of lean learning and implementation are covered first, including learning how to identify waste, establishing process stability, and developing flow. The book spends more time on organizational culture and management methods, as opposed to tools. The book remains practical and actionable, rather than theoretical.
A strong central portion of the book focuses on developing leaders, how to lead in a lean environment, and how to develop "exceptional" employees. One particular highlight are the detailed examples, including a breakdown of the roles of Group Leaders, Team Leaders, and Team Members in a lean setting, not covered in most lean books.
The book recognizes that companies are not Toyota as a starting point. Rather, they are trying to become a Toyota-like lean organization. There is a chapter on respecting suppliers and managing them as Toyota does. The last sections of the book cover Toyota problem solving and implementation strategies, including a discussion of the pros and cons of different common lean transformation or implementation approaches, including kaizen events and the development of a "Company Production System."
How does it contribute to the lean knowledge base?
This book is a unique compilation of Toyota Production System methods, concepts, and philosophies. There are many adaptable examples of Toyota tools and methods, including Standard Work Combination tables, Cross Training matrices, 5 Why's problem solving analysis, and A3 reports. There are many new case study examples in the book that will be helpful, even to an experienced lean practitioner.
The book is also unique in that it is co-authored by a former Toyota team leader, an American, as opposed to reading an older book by Toyota executive Taiichi Ohno or consultant Shigeo Shingo.
What are the highlights? What works?
The book is very readable and easy to understand. Its layout and format borrows many of the good practices of the "For Dummies" series. You might consider this to be a "Toyota Production System For Dummies" book. There are many callouts with icons indicating "Tips" and "Traps" to look out for in your own lean implementation, to help avoid common lean implementation mistakes or failure modes.
This is very helpful, as the authors realize that it can be difficult work implementing lean. They never talk down to you or make you feel bad that you might struggle with the Toyota Way in your own environment, because you are not Toyota.
Furthermore, co-author David Meier was a group leader at Toyota. Many perspectives on Toyota come from the process or industrial engineering perspective, but the perspective of front-line supervisor is of significant value and often overlooked.
What are the weaknesses? What's missing?
While this is clearly a field book in its application focus, it is less clear how it is connected to companion book, The Toyota Way. The 14 principles of that book are mentioned briefly but are not integrated into this book. The Fieldbook has value as a standalone volume, but those looking for a specific companion to The Toyota Way will be disappointed.
You might be surprised to not find much information about Kanban, a process made famous by Toyota. Although the concept of pull is covered, there is no chapter on Kanban or examples of calculations or Kanban cards. Thankfully, there are many references and other books available on this topic.
How should I read this to get the most out of it?
The book can be read straight through. For an experienced lean practitioner, it can easily be used as a reference book. Topics are well organized and tools are easy to find with a well-documented index. For example, if you want an example of an A3 Report, you will find many pages of explanation about the tool and how to use you. You will also find fully completed examples of the tool. This is extremely helpful and adds to the book's value as a practical reference.
Great addition to Toyota Way but not as good.......2007-05-27
The Toyota Way Fieldbook is excellent and it's a great addition to the Toyota Way. It's hard to write a book as good as the Toyota Way, this book is good, but not as good as Toyota Way.
When I started reading the fieldbook, I was highly dissapointed. The first 200 pages basically just explained the basic lean tools. It's good if you do not know them, but I felt that the book didn't add anything to the existing lean literature. I expected more from Jeff Liker, especially after the excellent Toyota Way.
Part IV of the book starts around page 200 and talks about developing people. Here, for me, the book took a turn and became better the more I continued. (I also immediately ordered the new Toyota Talent book to hope to get more information on this side of Toyota). The organizational structures and training descriptions was very concrete, as I would expect in a fieldbook. Then Part V started around page 300 and it was... excellent. It's about find root causes and continuous learning. Just chapter 14 is worth the whole book. The description of the "therefore" method and it's relationship to the 5why's is very important. (this section talks about how 5why is a method for finding the root cause, but it's just as important to abstract the problem in "the true problem" so that you got more flexibility in ways of solving it).
The last part is about managing the change. The stories are all very nice and concrete. The advise is useful.
I really like this book, especially chapter 14! It gave me, again, new insights in Toyota's way of working and especially it's culture. The stories made it concrete and they were fun to read. Recommended, after you finished the Toyota Way.
Book Description
"Toyota is becoming a double threat: the world's finest manufacturer and a truly great innovator . . . that formula, a combination of production prowess and technical innovation, is an unbeatable recipe for success."
-- Fortune, February 2006
For the first time, an insider reveals the formula behind Toyota's unceasing quest to innovate and do more with less, a philosophy that has made it one of the ten most profitable companies in the world (and worth more than GM, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, and Honda combined). In a rare look into Toyota's ability to consistently achieve breakthroughs that outperform the competition, The Elegant Solution explains what Toyota associates have known all along: it's not about the cars. Rather, Toyota's astounding success is just the visible result of a hidden creative process that begins with a seven-digit number.
One million. That's how many new ideas the Toyota organization implements every year. These ideas come from every level of the organization -- from the factory floors to the corporate suites. And organizations all over the world want to learn how it's done. Now senior University of Toyota advisor Matthew May shows how any company can achieve an environment of everyday innovation and discover the kinds of elegant solutions that hold the power to change the game forever. World-class benchmarks like Lexus, Prius, Scion -- even Toyota's vaunted production system -- are simply shining examples of elegant solutions.
A tactical playbook for team-based innovation, The Elegant Solution delivers powerful lessons in breakthrough thinking in a provocative yet practical guide to the three core principles and ten key practices that shape successful business innovation. Innovation isn't just about technology -- it's about value, opportunity, and impact. When a company embeds a real discipline around tapping ingenuity in the pursuit of perfection, the sky is the limit. Dozens of case studies (from Toyota and other companies) illustrate the universal power and applicability of these concepts. A unique "clamshell strategy" prepares managers to successfully lead and sustain the innovation effort.
At once a thought-starter and a taskmaster, The Elegant Solution is a vital prescription for anyone wanting to truly master business innovation.
Customer Reviews:
The Elegant Solution.......2007-10-08
This is an excellent (and yes, elegant) overview of the Toyota quality "mindset." The book is a "must read" for for anyone interested in business strategy development. The book offers a readable summary of the principles of the Toyota Way with an emphasis on the development of the Lexus and Prius lines including practical examples of the elements of the approach advocated. When a company has amassed assets greater than GM, Ford, Chrysler, VW and Honda combined, their approach may be worth deeper study. I highly recommend this practical, important, and very readable book.
Nice stories, little new content.......2007-08-27
I excepted a lot from the elegant solution. It has been recommended by a lot of persons as a must read. Honestly, I was dissapointed. It's still an good book, but didn't find it as "classic" as people had suggested to me.
"The elegant solution" is about tools for creating innovation on your job. These tools are based on Toyota's tools and practices. The book is devided in three parts. The first part sets three general principles. The second part, by far the largest, provides the tools for innovation, the practices. The last part talks about implementing these practices.
The three principles are "the art of ingenuity", "pursuit of perfection" and "rhythm of fit". They were interesting principles, but not really new or shocking. Sometimes I found them even a little too vague.
The practices range from "thinking in pictures" to "master the tension". Each chapter shortly states the practice and explains the key ideas. After that it uses stories to clarify the practice. Lot's of stories are from inside Toyota. Some stories related to Lance Armstrong, a little too many in my opinion and they were somewhat boring. Anyways, in general, the stories were what made the book interesting.
The third part didn't provide very much content.
In summary, I enjoyed the book, for the stories. I didn't find the practices new and the book didn't provided me with any new insight that other lean books did not provide. The book was written a little bit too much in a "popular style" which annoyed me.
Worth reading for the stories. When wanting to know more on lean or toyota I'd recommend other books like "Toyota way" or "Lean product and process development".
Good nuggets, lots of fluff, some really sloppy thinking.......2007-08-22
I came to this book via the Shampoo Problem that's been floating around the internet these past couple of weeks (which he published in his Change This manifesto). The puzzle is this - a high-end health club puts nice shampoo in their showers, but customers keep stealing it. How do you implement a solution that takes no time to implement, doesn't inconvenience customers at all, and doesn't require any money? That's a lot of constrictions, but the author claims it can be done! (you can search for the answer yourself, I don't want to spoil your fun.)
The question itself reminded me of so many bad professors who would ask totally subjective questions and disregard legitimate answers until they found someone who agreed with them. "Who can give me an example of an apple that's tasty? Macintosh? No too sweet. Granny smith? No too bitter. Golden delicious? Why yes Bobby, you get a star."
This is the tone in my head while I read the book - condescending. Maybe he didn't write it that way, but that's how I'm reading it, and honestly, it fits. On page 21 he chides psychologists for loving "to explain our uniquely hardwired capabilities in hugely complex terms. Sixteen types, thirty-four strengths, etc." and then goes on to give his "easier, more elegant" (but no less arbitrary "four basic buckets of natural ability." (Four because the ancient Greeks loved the number four.) Of course, what he fails to mention is that the psychologists he's referring to all write for pop magazines like Cosmopolitan and their articles appear alongside such classics as "10 ways to improve your sex life" and "5 ways to tell if your man is cheating on you." He also never mentions the "four basic buckets of natural ability" again and they have absolutely no bearing on the rest of the book. (The book is filled with useless random made up facts like those.)
He also throws out sentences that have huge presumptions built in to them, but have absolutely no evidence to back them up. Stuff that, in a seminar you wouldn't want to question him on because "there is no right answer" or the facts are obscure enough that he could bluster his way though most arguments that weren't from an expert on the subject. In book form, though, and knowing better myself, I read this stuff and think "well there's a very poor and inaccurate description." Luckily there's an only 50% chance that even the next sentence will depend on you agreeing with that statement, much less the next page.
In a later section he rehashes "the scientific method" (I put it in quotes because he botched his basic characterization of it) and compares it to other four step iterative processes, mostly those developed by the military - Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA), Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA), Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA), Scan-Analyze-Respond-Assess (SARA), etc. and comes up with his own version, cleverly called IDEA - Investigate, Design, Execute, Adjust. It's not much different than the others, but it's his and he can teach it in seminars as his own. FWIW, "While Toyota officially recognizes only PDCA (not IDEA), they actually use all of these (methodologies) to some degree." (page 73-4)
Well of course they use all of the methodologies to some degree - they all describe the same basic thing, and very few organizations are so button-down that they actually only use a single methodology and follow it to the letter each time.
The very next sentence is "Let's look closer at the process." But that's pretty much the last time PDCA is mentioned in the book, the next section is about process in general and why it's good to "Insist on a common approach."
Another example of sloppy leaps in logic and condescending attitude is the Edsel. (page 93) Ford did their research and designed a car that people would want - except nobody wanted it. Why? "The problem was, all the research was based on a forty-year-old market belief... that buyers fell into one of four income segments: low, low-middle, upper-middle, and upper... Except markets don't think that way. When it comes to cars, consumers were thinking `lifestyle,' not income."
I like how he swaps an old marketing tool for a modern one as if that's the answer to all the world's problems. Lifestyle marketing was originated in the 70's and 80's as a result of - surprise surprise - new market research techniques developed by psychologists who were using statistical analysis more and more in their psychological research. (I wonder if he thinks those psychologists are too complex now.)
He also utterly fails to get into the concept of lifestyle marketing - he tells you why the Edsel failed, and what they should have done, (or his completely arbitrary and baseless versions of them) but what they should have done is literally one word. "lifestyle." Shame on Ford in the 1950's for not using an 80's marketing concept to understand how the market thinks. Why didn't they use the word "lifestyle" instead - then the Edsel would have been a huge success.
Hansei is another example of this sloppy, condescending thinking. "Hansei is the rigorous review conducted after action has been taken. It's a huge and absolutely vital part of learning. And with few exceptions, our Western culture is just plain miserable at it." Of course there's not one mention of the term "post-mortem" which is a western term and performs the exact same function. Sure most businesses don't do it (most businesses don't follow a lot of best practices), but don't pretend that Toyota or "Eastern culture" somehow invented the concept and that nobody in the west does it. If there's an existing best practice that we understand, then why not just tell us about it rather than pretending that it came from the fount of the Toyota godhead?
"Ford hadn't gone to the field to see what was actually happening. They remained in the office and believed the data. Big mistake. The Edsel was dead on arrival, a complete and utter failure."
Of course the next chapter is about how Toyota did the same basic thing, but managed to succeed. Their data told them that the youth of today would be the car buyers of tomorrow (startling, I know). The case study for the Scion reveals absolutely nothing about the techniques they used to study the market - it's the after report.
"Where are these kids going to buy the car? There's no time or money for new stores. That's a problem. That means they go to a Toyota store. Okay, so they'll know it's a Toyota. How do we get around that? Think? We don't. It's not the ugly stepchild. It's legit, but different. It's Scion, offspring of Toyota. Don't ignore the Toyota link, it's got cred...."
Note the use of the magical word "Think" in that paragraph. He totally neglects to address what "Think" means. Think is the Elegant part of the solution (he also likes the word "Intuitive" and uses it liberally), yet he doesn't describe it at all.
"Think" is where all the magic happens. Katie Lucas calls this the "Run really, really fast" step for "how to win a marathon" methodologies. It's the step where all the real difficult, nitty-gritty stuff magically happens. South Park summarizes it "Step 1: Steal underpants. Step 2...... Step 3: Profit."
Ostensibly the whole book is about that one word "Think" but the tools he provides - the IDEA loop, mind mapping, story boarding are nothing new, and the book is utterly lacking a cohesive whole. They're just scattered ideas, praised one second, and then dropped in the next chapter. He even mentions the Toyota "dashboard" which is a tool for getting a quick overview of a problem - except he (again) utterly fails in to a dashboard. "Dashboard" doesn't even appear in the index of the book, and if it did, the only occurrence would be on page 113.
Here's all the text on page 113. "Creative Visual Control - Visual control is an integral part of Toyota's methodology. The Project Management Office of Toyota's North American Parts Operation (NAPO) used creative visual `dashboards' to track performance in their Stretch Goals Initiative (see Chapter 9)."
Chapter 9 is on how to stretch goals, not about dashboards. He clearly states "Visual control is an integral part of Toyota's methodology" yet it's explained nowhere in the book in any depth.
In fairness, Toyota did do something Ford didn't do (or at least something he claims Ford didn't do) - they got to know their market. Really engage them and have a conversation with them. Learn about them, and let those learnings drive their product, and he does get into that in the book.
The main thrust of the book - if I can understand it all because it's couched in so many superlatives and it jumps from topic to topic so fast that it's really difficult to tease core themes out - seems to be something like: Move forward by getting hands-on experience with your product and your customers. Don't dictate strategy based on numbers alone, or build bureaucracies - get down and dirty and get to know the product you're selling and get to know the marketplace. Come up with grand "elegant" visions for the future, but innovate little by little - tiniest bit by tiniest bit. Listen to everyone and implement every good idea, then standardize it so that the whole company benefits. Don't let the numbers do all the talking; learn the context, the story behind the numbers. Which is a pretty good message, and he does give you some tools to do that, but the tools are often vague, and you feel that the real tools are mentioned only in passing.
The subtitle of the book is "Toyota's Formula for Mastering Innovation." If this book was about the "formula" for Coca-Cola, it would say something like "cola syrup and seltzer" and go on about the intuitive and elegant way they matched cola syrup to the bubbling process and created a dynamic new soft drink and how the other soft drink companies of the day - lemonade, sugar-water and apple-juice - failed to really understand the problem, which is why they didn't come up with the cola + seltzer combination first and why they lost so much market share. (If only apple juice had thought "lifestyle" instead of "income segment!")
Overall, it's an okay read and a decent introduction to the subject of business innovation, though for a book that's supposedly written by a guy who's on the ground floor with this stuff, I would expect a *lot* more meat and a lot less fluff. Get it if you think you'll like it, but don't expect as much as the other reviewers seem to be hinting at.
"Keep it lean. Scale it back, make it simple, and let it flow.".......2007-05-22
The subtitle of this book ("Toyota's Formula for Mastering Innovation") is not inaccurate but somewhat misleading. Although, yes, Matthew E. May has much of interest and value to say about the Toyota Production System, his attention is by no means limited to it and to the remarkable organization within which it was developed and within which it continues to flourish. Today, Toyota is one of the ten most profitable companies in the world and worth more than General Motors, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, and Honda...combined. Obviously there are reasons for such extraordinary success but it would be incorrect to assume that other organizations can achieve the same success once they know what Toyota's "formula for mastering innovation" is.
What about this book's title? According to May, "Elegance isn't about being hoity-toity. It's not about lofty concepts and grand designs. It's not about beauty or grace, or anything to do with aesthetics - ugly is okay. Elegance is about something much more profound. It's about finding the `aha' solution to a problem with the greatest parsimony of effort and expense. Creativity plays a part. Simplicity plays a part. Intelligence plays a part. Add in subtlety, economy, and quality, and you get elegance...Elegant solutions relieve creative tension by solving the problem in finito as it's been defined, in a way that avoids creating other problems that then need to be solved. Elegant solutions render only new possibilities to chase and exploit. Finally, elegant solutions aren't obvious, except, of course, in retrospect."
Elegant solutions include library, paper money, pencil, wallet, wristwatch, icebox, mortgage, Social Security, credit card, cell phone, and auto leasing. These and other elegant solutions, as May correctly points out, "universally change the world's attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and habits." Efforts to formulate elegant solutions are guided and informed by three principles: ingenuity in craft, pursuit of perfection, and fit with society. "They're the raison d'etre at Toyota, and nonnegotiable."
Earlier, I suggested that this book takes a close look at the mindset and the process by which Toyota continues to formulate elegant solutions. In fact, the Toyota organization implements a million ideas a year. May also includes within his narrative dozens of non-Toyota cases that indicate that none of the individual concepts are new, or even unique to Toyota. All organizations that formulate elegant solutions have people at all levels and in all areas of operation who possess both an ability and a determination to collectively and completely master all of the concepts as "a way of life, not a program centered on select teams led by specialists with artificial agendas."
But what about much smaller organizations, especially those with severely limited resources? Decision-makers in those organizations will be delighted (and perhaps surprised) to find that May provides a wealth of material that they can immediately put to use, once they understand the "deeper principles" that he discusses in Part I and the "ten key practices supported by tools and techniques" that he discusses in Part II. Then in Part III, May explains "how to put the practices and tools together well to achieve a [desired] result." He helps his reader to track the course of an exemplary team through a day of searching for the elegant solution.
For me, some of the most interesting and valuable material is provided in Chapter 12, "Make Kaizen Mandatory," as May poses again (as he does in other chapters) a combination of Problem, Cause, and Solution:
Problem: Innovation is hit or miss.
Cause: Creativity is misdirected and mismanaged.
Solution: Embed the kaizen ethic.
After a brief review of the factors that came together to help embed the kaizen ethic in Japanese business ethic during the decade or so following World War Two, he goes on to explain that at companies such as Toyota, the key issue is that they view kaizen in terms of standards that are created by the individuals performing the work, and, that standards are dynamic, and not everything gets standardized. These companies establish a best practice, document the standard, and train accordingly. Then in the next chapter, May shares his thoughts about "the power of lean" thinking and execution that reduce (if not eliminate) inconsistency, overload, and (most important) waste. Here is another combination:
Problem: Too many, too much - of everything.
Cause: Assumption that more is better.
Solution: Start thinking lean.
Once again, when it comes to innovation and designing solutions, the emphasis remains the same: "whatever you do, keep it lean. Scale it back, make it simple, and let it flow."
And that is what elegance really is all about.
Easy Reading.......2007-03-25
A must read for learning how to implement and sustain continuous improvement enabking lean to become part of the compny's culture
Average customer rating:
- Improving the improvements
- Future of the American Auto Industry revealed
- Excellent Introduction to Lean Production
- Great book, but now dated and perhaps a bit too fawning
- A paradigm shift, and now I understand "Lean" a whole lot better
|
The Machine That Changed the World : The Story of Lean Production
James P. Womack ,
Daniel T. Jones , and
Daniel Roos
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
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ASIN: 0060974176 |
Book Description
This volume carefully traces the rise of the Toyota system from its take-off point in Ford's mass production system to its spread across the world, starting with the NUMMI joint venture with General Motors in California and now advancing in Europe, Latin America, and East Asia as well. It then identifies and describes the advantages of this system, which needs less of everything including time, human effort, inventories, and investment to produce products with fewer defects in smaller volumes at lower costs for fragmenting markets. The Machine That Changed the World even gave the system its name: lean. P In the decade since its launch in the fall of 1990, The Machine That Changed the World has sold more than 600,000 copies in 11 languages and has introduced a whole generation of managers and engineers to lean thinking. No lean library is complete without this groundbreaking book. P "The fundamentals of this system are applicable to every industry across the globea[and] will have a profound effect on human society. It will truly change the world." - New York Times p i Paperback / 1990 / 323 pages /i
Customer Reviews:
Improving the improvements.......2007-05-20
Lean production started with Henry Ford's car for the masses. Toyota took the old idea of customization combined with mass production to create their mass customization model. Quality is important in the product and focus on what is important to the client allows us to know what qualities make the most difference."If it aint broke don't fix it." Providing an affordable product was 20th century sales. Improving the improvements that are critically important to the client is 21st century marketing. The book proves it through the automotive manufacturing model.
Future of the American Auto Industry revealed.......2007-02-07
If this this book had been required reading for everyone employed at Chrysler, Ford & GM, the US auto industry may not be in the dire position it is today.
Excellent Introduction to Lean Production.......2007-02-01
This book provides an excellent introduction to lean techniques. I am college student majoring in mechanical engineering and needed something that could give me an overview of lean production and help me understand how it differs from mass production. The book certainly meets that criteria. While it does not give many case studies of how companies can convert to lean production, "Lean Thinking" by the same authors does do that and is also an excellent book.
The authors performed many years of research before publishing their data and can provide hard numbers to back up their claims that lean production is simply a better method. If you're looking for something to introduce you to lean production, this is the book to get.
Great book, but now dated and perhaps a bit too fawning.......2007-01-23
The title sets the tone the authors carry throughout the book. A little too much glorifying. A little too much hype. Yes, what Toyota and others did was impressive. But no, they did not change the world. In my opinion, not even close.
And this book is dated. In fact, though written in the early '90s, it reads more like many of the books written about Japanese management in the early '80s. Books like "Japan As Number One." Or "Trading Places." At the time, the Japanese were thought to be able to do no wrong.
Now, of course, we know that Japanese executives and managers are mere mortals too. Toyota has certainly done better than most Japanese companies over the last 15 years. And part of the reason -- a big part probably -- has been the effectiveness of their management in areas like lean production. But even without the benefit of the hindsight we now have, the authors of this book should have realized that their unstinted praise was not warranted. Even for the brains behind Toyota.
Still, this book is the best I have found on the history of the "Industry of Industries." It traces the history of the automobile industry from craft production to mass production to lean production. No other book I have read has done that so well.
And for an academic book, The Machine That Changed the World is easy to read. It keeps a careful balance between informing the reader and keeping the reader's interest. Most writers, particularly of works like this, tilt too much one way or the other. Either too dry and pedantic or too light and entertaining. A happy medium is hard to achieve.
Where does the auto industry go from here? Lean production is no longer exceptional. It has become the rule. But it seems to have run its course.
The future of the automobile industry may lie in "collaborative production." Major automakers concentrate on sales and service, not production. Suppliers develop specialized skills in technologies from hybrid power trains to drive-by-wire control systems. And everyone sells to everyone else. Technology becomes less important than brand.
If that is the case, Toyota may still lead the pack. In Business Week's list of the top 100 global brands, Toyota leads all carmakers at number 7. No one has caught Toyota napping on the increasing importance of brand.
Even so, Toyota fiercely defends the idea that is a motor company, not a sales company. Innovative technology and excellent manufacturing have been much more of a focus than sales. Will it be able to adapt if the industry does change?
An interesting question that we should see answered in the next few years. Like many good history books, The Machine That Changed the World gives us hints as to what that future will be.
A paradigm shift, and now I understand "Lean" a whole lot better.......2006-10-24
_The Machine the Changed the World_ by Womack, Jones & Roos is nominally about how Japanese carmakers came up with new ways to meet some difficult challenges. But really, it is about lean manufacturing and why lean manufacturing should be successor to current mass-production methods.
The authors did much of their research for the book while working at the International Motor Vehicle Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. That program was sponsored by a large number of car companies who wanted to understand why the Japanese way of manufacturing (especially as practiced by Toyota) had had such different results from older American & European car companies.
Consequently, the book does focus entirely on the automotive industry. Originally, the first automobiles were custom-made (and often handmade) to the exact specifications of individual buyers, who were usually quite wealthy. Henry Ford wanted to get beyond that and create an automobile that did not need hand-fitting and hand-crafting of every single piece, and that could be built by people who had not already spent ten years in an apprenticeship for a very specific and specialized craft. In his efforts to get beyond the craftsman era, Ford developed a lot of the concepts and attitudes that still define mass-production today.
For decades, manufacturers and especially car assemblers from all over the world would make a pilgrimage to Ford Motor Co. to better understand what wondrous thing this was that Ford had created. Among those was Eiji Toyoda, a member of the family that had founded Toyota Motor Company. While he found much of Ford's work interesting, he also saw a lot of wasted time & effort. Furthermore, Toyota was faced with some challenges that neither Ford (Ford Motor Co.) or Alfred Sloan (General Motors) had ever had to deal with, such as a work force that they almost could not fire, and a severe lack of investment funds.
In dealing with those challenges and in trying to eliminate waste, Toyota Motor Company (and many other Japanese companies) developed what it today known as "lean" manufacturing.
Unfortunately, most presentations of "lean" in the U.S. seem to focus on some of the surface features, such as smaller batch runs, a focus on a neat & orderly work space, and not carrying a lot of inventory.
This is where _The Machine That Changed the World_ really shines, because it explores the thought processes behind the surface features, and explains how lean thinking affects every department of a company, not just manufacturing. The requirements & results of a lean mentality in purchasing, product design, and marketing are all examined as well.
The book was published in 1991, and is therefore a bit dated in some respects. The authors look very favorably towards the Japanese banking & finance system, yet that same system has been having ongoing problems since the mid-1990s. The authors predicted a number of problems -- in marketing, market share, and labor relations -- for GM, Chrysler, and Ford, as well as many of the European auto makers. While I know some of those predictions have come to pass, I would dearly love to see a second edition of this book that goes into more detail about what has happened in the automotive industry during the last 15 years.
Finally, I would have liked to have seen some discussion about implementing a company-wide lean structure in an American company. I have seen references in numerous books to Americans having atypical attitudes regarding individuality vs. other cultures that stress a conformance with society, and while I do believe the lean mentality could (and probably should) be implemented almost anywhere, I think there will be some specific aspects of American culture that will force a slightly different implementation than was done in Japan.
Average customer rating:
- Not Bad - a little dated, but better than most
- Very good introduction to the subject.
- Down to earth, well versed material. Very good reading.
- Great! But update!
- Buy this book if you plan to convert a car to electric
|
Build Your Own Electric Vehicle
Bob Brant
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill/TAB Electronics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0830642315 |
Book Description
Electric vehicles have many advantages over their gas-powered counterparts. They're ecologically sound, much cheaper to operate, and require almost no routine maintenance. Drivers can enjoy the clean-running convenience and economy of an electric vehicle for as much as it costs to buy a new car. This illustrated guide explains step by step how to build an inexpensive EV from a kit or convert an existing internal combustion engine. Build Your Own Electric Car begins with an informative history of electric vehicles, current international advances in EV technology, and a look ahead at the future of EV development. Then, author Bob Brant gives a building-block description of each EV component-motor, drive train, controllers, power supplies, chargers, and chassis-and how to put them all together to make a working vehicle. He also gives valuable advice on where to find affordable EV components and systems, how to get the most out of EV driving and ownership, and how to make the best buy, build, and conversion tradeoffs.
Customer Reviews:
Not Bad - a little dated, but better than most.......2007-07-30
Compared to my other review on the book: "Convert It.", this book is much better - at least it's a real "paperback"! The material is more up to date, however it is still somewhat dated. The newer controller chips available, tranformer technologies and battery technologies are described in a forward looking way... however these items are now easily available - so the book doesn't address them very well, they weren't reality at the time. Still a good read to get a comparison of different concepts. Your money might be better spent doing research on the pricey, but high tech Tesla Motors car. There is 2007 technology at work!
Very good introduction to the subject........2007-05-30
If you're not already sold on why you should consider an electric car, this book should help. It covers the pros/cons of buying, building or converting. Before you consider converting a car to be electric, read this book. I suspect spending a little now for knowledge might save a lot later when it comes to buying stuff!
Down to earth, well versed material. Very good reading........2007-03-07
No matter if you just want to learn a little more about EV technology or consideting to build your own Electric Car, this book will give you a wealth of information on all sorts of EV related topics. The book starts with EV history, then goes into EV practicality, then onto currently (well in 80's) available off the shelf technology, vehicle design, physics and aero dynamic principles and finally you get a walk through an actual EV conversion process. I like this book for the way it's formed and the way it flows. The author writes in plain language with plenty of advise and tips. Everything is simple, just like an EV is such a simple machine at it's core. After reading this book, you will get a clear picture where technology stands with EVs, why Internal combustion engine dominated our means of transport and finally how to desing and construct your own EV. Overall great book. One drawback however, this book is written in 80' and has a lot of hopes in it, which is sad to read at times. Like when author talks about newly developed prototype of GM Impact (later renamed EV1) the author puts high hopes for this progect, yet we all know what happened to this effort. You will want to read "Convert it" by Michael Brown after reading this book.
Great! But update!.......2007-01-18
I'm reading this book again and again before I build my own. The info is timeless, but I know the world of EV has changed in 15 years.
Buy this book if you plan to convert a car to electric.......2006-10-23
The title says it all really.
Look this book is somewhat dated, and half the book seems devoted more to theoretical graphs and charts, facts and figures and the like, plus arguing why we *need* to switch to electric vehicles for city use.
However, having said that, it's well produced and you get 300 plus pages for less than US $ 14. (almost "double the book for half the price" compared to some others) This book is worth every penny and then some.
The contacts pages, (pages and pages of them) pre-dates the internet boom so has NO useful urls or email addresses. However with the many names and snail-mail addresses you could probably track businesses down easily enough (plus I'm a guessin' they still have the same phone numbers ! ).
I would look forward, at some future date, to an updated revised edition of this book being published
Until that happens, (if ever) I'd have no hesitation recommending this as one of the several texts that any novice car converter should read before starting their first conversion project.
Catherine, Outback Western Australia.
Book Description
When The Machine That Changed the World was first published in 1990, Toyota was half the size of General Motors. Today Toyota is passing GM as the world's largest auto maker and is the most consistently successful global enterprise of the past fifty years. This management classic was the first book to reveal Toyota's lean production system that is the basis for its enduring success.
Now reissued with a new Foreword and Afterword, Machine contrasts two fundamentally different business systems -- lean versus mass, two very different ways of thinking about how humans work together to create value. Based on the largest and most thorough study ever undertaken of any industry -- MIT's five-year, fourteen-country International Motor Vehicle Program -- this book describes the entire managerial system of lean production.
Nearly twenty years ago, Womack, Jones, and Roos provided a comprehensive description of the entire lean system. They exhaustively documented its advantages over the mass production model pioneered by General Motors and predicted that lean production would eventually triumph. Indeed, they argued that it would triumph not just in manufacturing but in every value-creating activity from health care to retail to distribution.
Today The Machine That Changed the World provides enduring and essential guidance to managers and leaders in every industry seeking to transform traditional enterprises into exemplars of lean success.
Customer Reviews:
Over rated........2007-07-09
The Machine That Changed the World and the subsequent articles that Mr. Womack has written for the Wall Street Journal almost make him look like a shill for Toyota. This book either omits or minimizes the importance of developments that lead Toyota to the Toyota Production System. I expected a more independent and intellectually honest viewpoint because Mr. Womack passes himself off as a top academic.
Customer Reviews:
If you ever wondered why factory workers drink, read this...........2007-09-02
The endless monotony and idiot bosses drive anybody with an IQ above their shoe size to do something to kill the thought that, if they're lucky, they only have 30 more years of mind numbing drudgery to go before they can retire. I'm not saying alcohol abuse is the proper outlet, but it does seem to be the most common and most convenient. Good book, excellent portrayal of what exactly "blue collar America" does for a living.
riveting tale from the assembly line.........2007-07-06
Ben Hamper shares his life as a worker on the GM assembly line in Flint, MI. Bold, frank, honest and often hilarious. This book was recommended to me years ago and for some reason I never read it until now. Hamper chronicles a part of American history (manufacturing jobs) that seem to be going stateside or as Ross Perot once described in a quip about NAFTA, what's that whoosing noise? manufacturing jobs headed to Mexico. This is prose for the ages. Loved the book.
Hilarious story of a dying breed.......2007-04-18
I grew up with people like Ben Hamper in a place which was much like Flint. For the first couple years of my adult life, I did the kind of work he did. What he describes is the tail end of a lifestyle; the lifestyle of the shop rat. It's dirty, monotonous and smelly. Many of the people you work with are either below average in intelligence or in sanity. Drugs, booze and having no concept of "forethought" are fundamental parts of the culture. It's nihilism with a rivet gun. If you come from a place like that, chances are, your only way out is via a jail cell or a career in the military. Or, you could win a workmans comp suit. Which is presumably how Ben got out.
I miss rust-belt working class america. It's a hard life, and it doesn't have much in the way of rewards, but the people who make it up are genuine in ways that others are not: they have a lot of heart and spirit. Ben's book brought it all back in a great galloping rush of memories. If you've ever wondered what the factory working classes are, or at least were like (back when we had factories); read the book.
I have my own tales from an Assembly Line.......2007-03-29
I didn't really like reading this book because I too work in a (once) major three Auto plant. I didn't feel that it properly portrayed some of the workers. It made it sound like all workers are like the author where they just really don't give a damn about anything except having a joking time on the job. It also made the workers sound like they were underachieving, undereducated, bottom of the barrel workers and I didn't care to have that stigma for all of us. I hold two bachelor degrees, like my job and take it serious!
Now I know why GOOD BOOKS DON'T PUT UP WITH writin' and drinkin' .......2007-01-05
It's just hard to read, after a while. I never grow to like the guy at all, he's appears to be a total loser while WRITING LIKE A TEENAGER IN A CHAT ROOM. THEY DID NOT MAKE THE CAPS LOCK FOR THIS REASON. And it's okay to quote somebody talkin' but throughout the whole book, writin' and talkin' and movin' and drinkin'. Sounds like a petty thing but after seventy pages it gets very old. Basically the same thing as people who either didn't have the opportunity to have a basic education or didn't bother to apply the one they had.
The book, or as far as I got in it was interesting, but I just couldn't put up with the sheer lack of professionalism which, by his story isn't surprising and I'm not trying to say this in a way to slam the guy, it just is what it is. A depressing story which had potential but I think he was probably too stubborn to listen to somebody (assuming someone brought it up) in regards to the ALL CAPS and writin'. If it is a downer of a story so be it but I have hundreds of books to read and am not going to finish one that is so badly written. And for me to say that a book is badly written... hoo boy it must be.
It was interesting to hear about how the GM plant worked, and how the workers would slack off and so on and I actually wanted to get through the book. This probably makes me a bit of a snob but if someone isn't going to write with basic english skills which he definitely must have, yet chooses to get ALL CAPS all of the time I have many other books which were written with basic respect for the reader and the language. Never thought I would get mad about something like this either. Just kind of slap in the face to think a reader would appreciate TYPIN' LIKE THIS IN A BOOK SOMEBODY PAID TWENTY DOLLARS FOR.
Could have been better, I wish I hadn't bought it though. I wanted to like it more.
Book Description
This is the first book that explains the business philosophy behind Toyota's success.
Customer Reviews:
Great - Toyota Way Audio (CDs).......2007-10-18
We have purchased 22 Audio versions of the Toyota Way because our Employees love listening to these CDs.
Great classic.......2007-10-10
I am on my third reading of this book. It is a classic and greatly enjoyable as well as educational and informative. I think every manufacturing professional should read it. I also recommend the book Lean Six Sigma That Works: A Powerful Action Plan for Dramatically Improving Quality, Increasing Speed, And Reducing Waste
Excellent book on the Toyota Way and Lean Manufacturing!.......2007-09-07
Jeffrey Liker clearly knows what he writes about. The book is the result of more than a decade of study, on site visits and interviews with several Toyota key people. It describes 14 toyota principles, which go through the Toyota Philosophy, the Toyota Production System, the relationship with employeees, customers, suppliers and partners, and a focus on continuous improvement. No wonder Toyota is one of world top most admired companies!
Very interesting is also the Japanese management principles and mindset - slow but determined, patient, self-reflection, learning by actuall observation and doing, consensus seeking, and managing for the long term.
By coincidence, yesterday (6/Sep/2007) the news came up that Jim Press (American Toyota President)was hired by Chrysler - I can imagine why.
Good Book on Toyota and Lean.......2007-06-30
A good book on the Toyota Production System (TPS) and Lean manufacturing. Liker does a good job of explaining both. I especially liked his cautions about mis-using Lean principles and pitfalls to failure.
Like most business books, the important stuff could have been expressed in many fewer pages. Liker almost gushes about Toyota to the extent that it somethimes reads as a vanity or promotional publication by Toyota - this makes me wonder if it really presents a balanced perspective.
Overall, I recommend it to anyone interested in Toyota or Lean.
Attitude Check.......2007-06-12
Great expose of the attitude of one of the worlds most impressive business organizations. Detailed, but not cumbersome. More than just another "how to" manual. A "must read" for decision makers in any business.
Book Description
Trevor Legate covers the Cobra like no other author and photographer, and in this major new work he gives Cobra aficionados and motoring enthusiasts the ultimate look at this classic car. With over 280 photographs, many never before published, this book brilliantly unfolds the story of the Shelby AC Cobra from its launch in 1962, to the end of production in 1968, to the unstoppable cars reappearance in the replica kit-car market. Whether detailing the first glorious road cars or chronicling the superbly muscled race carsincluding the Daytona Cobra coupes that contested the FIA World Championshipwhether delving into the Cobras history or describing the advent of Autokraft and the AC Cobra MkIV, Legate provides every angle on the incomparable Cobra and its lasting legacy.
Customer Reviews:
A good addition to your collection if you're a Cobra fan.......2007-08-23
Contains details I have not seen in some other books, lots of good large photos, which make it worth the price alone. Written in a very "British" style, so it tends to ramble a little. I cannot see any real Cobra fan being dissapointed by this book. I'm glad I bought it.
A good book but.......2007-05-07
I am planning to build a replica Cobra. I bought this book to get as many pictures as I could of the original car. While it has these just in a cursory reading I have found many errors of fact and omission.
For example there is a picture of Shelby sitting in a Viper. The picture is labeled as him sitting in a continuation Cobra. Not even close.
It also did not have as many color pictures as I had hopped.
Great Cobra Book.......2007-01-20
Cobra: The First 40 Years is a great book for those who are obsessed with Cobras. Theres a lot of great images and information. It is the best book about Cobras so far.
An excellent book on all things Cobra.......2007-01-09
I have a large collection of books relating to the history of the Shelby Cobra, and this is one of the best, most complete of the various books out there. Excellent photography as well from an author who is passionate about he subject matter.
WOW!!!.......2006-08-10
I'd give it 10 stars, if I could. Great book for any Ford or Cobra enthusiast. A MUST HAVE for them.
Book Description
“Moonshiners put more time, energy, thought, and love into their cars than any racer ever will. Lose on the track and you go home. Lose with a load of whiskey and you go to jail.” —Junior Johnson, NASCAR legend and one-time whiskey runner
Today’s NASCAR is a family sport with 75 million loyal fans, which is growing bigger and more mainstream by the day. Part Disney, part Vegas, part Barnum & Bailey, NASCAR is also a multibillion-dollar business and a cultural phenomenon that transcends geography, class, and gender. But dark secrets lurk in NASCAR’s past.
Driving with the Devil uncovers for the first time the true story behind NASCAR’s distant, moonshine-fueled origins and paints a rich portrait of the colorful men who created it. Long before the sport of stock-car racing even existed, young men in the rural, Depression-wracked South had figured out that cars and speed were tickets to a better life. With few options beyond the farm or factory, the best chance of escape was running moonshine. Bootlegging offered speed, adventure, and wads of cash—if the drivers survived. Driving with the Devil is the story of bootleggers whose empires grew during Prohibition and continued to thrive well after Repeal, and of drivers who thundered down dusty back roads with moonshine deliveries, deftly outrunning federal agents. The car of choice was the Ford V-8, the hottest car of the 1930s, and ace mechanics tinkered with them until they could fly across mountain roads at 100 miles an hour.
After fighting in World War II, moonshiners transferred their skills to the rough, red-dirt racetracks of Dixie, and a national sport was born. In this dynamic era (1930s and ’40s), three men with a passion for Ford V-8s—convicted criminal Ray Parks, foul-mouthed mechanic Red Vogt, and crippled war veteran Red Byron, NASCAR’s first champion—emerged as the first stock car “team.” Theirs is the violent, poignant story of how moonshine and fast cars merged to create a new sport for the South to call its own.
Driving with the Devil is a fascinating look at the well-hidden historical connection between whiskey running and stock-car racing. NASCAR histories will tell you who led every lap of every race since the first official race in 1948. Driving with the Devil goes deeper to bring you the excitement, passion, crime, and death-defying feats of the wild, early days that NASCAR has carefully hidden from public view. In the tradition of Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit, this tale not only reveals a bygone era of a beloved sport, but also the character of the country at a moment in time.
Customer Reviews:
Rev up your reading!.......2007-09-20
Nearly 1 in 3 Americans is a NASCAR fan. Autoracing is now the second most popular sport in the USA, and it's on track (no pun intended) to take the #1 spot from football. Unlike football, you don't have to be a genetic accident to play the game. One of racing's appealing traditions is that an ordinary person--man or woman--can be a race car driver. And there are no Michael Vicks scandals. These and other reasons are why it's not just a "guy thing" but has, in fact, a huge base of female fans.
NASCAR is only one of the autoracing organizations in the country. But to most Americans, NASCAR is autoracing.
While everybody knows about NASCAR, most people are not aware of the profound change it has made in racing or in the profound financial benefits it has for any community that has been awarded the privilege of hosting a NASCAR track.
My high school is less than a mile from a quarter-mile oval track (non-NASCAR) that has run stock cars and late model funny cars for over half a century. I grew up around race cars, and worked pit crews on that track and at a major drag strip half an hour away. I had my own highly-modified street racers. My hopped-up Camaro did the quarter mile in 14 seconds. But my Dodge Charger did it in 12. Its very modified transmission was set up to shift from first to second when its very modified 500HP V-8 engine hit 7200 RPM.
Back then, racing was kind of an oddity. It's dirty and expensive, and you put in a huge amount of money and long hours, just to race for a comparatively short time on the track (or street). There was a certain "outlaw" quality to it (especially the street racing) and that was part of the allure for some racers and spectators. Most people weren't all that interested.
No longer is autoracing an oddity. NASCAR has changed everything about racing and, in the process, made it not only mainstream but culturally iconic.
Today, I live only a few miles from the NASCAR track in Kansas City. That track is a crown jewel and major attraction in this area. During a NASCAR event, hotel space within 70 to 90 miles is sold out--and that "blackout" lasts about a week. As Thompson pointed out, people don't show up at a NASCAR event for just the race. They show up for typically a week-long adventure, with a carnival and other attractions. NASCAR itself rakes in nearly $5 billion a year from just the television contracts alone. Thompson provided other staggering figures as well, but I don't remember what they are.
Warren Buffet, known for wise investments, made sure a Cabela's Sporting Goods (one of his holdings) was built on the NASCAR complex in KC. People arrive in massive numbers, and shop there. They buy appliances and other goods at other onsite stores also, during the NASCAR event. That massive influx of shoppers gives a healthy boost to the sales tax revenue here.
In short:
NASCAR has become a major element of our culture.
NASCAR is a huge, huge business.
Cities beg to host a NASCAR track.
The appeal isn't racing itself.
So, how did NASCAR come into being and how did its races become such "must see" events? That's the story that Neal Thompson exhaustively researched and skillfully told.
The research
Thompson's backnotes (showing the source for each quote, fact, or assertion) are 19 pages long, in annoyingly tiny text. It would easily fill 30 pages if printed in a normal-sized font. This, to support a 300-page book.
Thompson listed 50 people he interviewed as "primary sources." All of these people were key to autoracing or insiders in some other way.
The bibliography spans four pages, again in tiny text. It looks like he consulted about about 80 books.
There's a list of about 30 articles consulted for this book.
Thompson also decided to get information from films--11 of them.
Finally, he gleaned information from 14 Websites.
It would be hard to make a viable claim that this book is anything but authoritative. And that's a good thing, because Thompson's story and the official NASCAR line differ.
The start
NASCAR wants to present its events as family fare, and there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, this approach is one reason Bill France--the major force behind NASCAR for decades--was able to change the world of stock car racing so dramatically. But what NASCAR doesn't want people to think about is the fact that its roots go way back to the era of Prohibition. That was like today's era of Prohibition, with a few key differences.
The original Prohibition was against one particular class of drug, alcohol. Congress, at that time, did not have the hubris to enact drug bans without Constitutional authority. So, they passed the 18th Amendment in 1919 to ban the manufacture and sale of alcohol. This, of course, had the same ill effects as today's unconstitutional bans on other drugs--outsized profits for the drug dealers, violent crime, no safety standards in manufacture or distribution, pointless diversion of limited law enforcement resources, prison overcrowding (the USA has the highest prison population per capita in the world), and a huge loss in tax revenue.
In short, that law was so stupid and deleterious that Congress repealed it by enacting the 21st Amendment in 1933. They can't do that with today's other drug bans, because those aren't Constitutional to begin with.
During this period of stupidity, a cottage industry arose--mostly in the South, where people made their own booze from corn. They were called moonshiners. Because their liquor was illegal, they needed to outrun the police when making deliveries and when conducting other business related to moonshine. The drivers of those cars became the drivers in the early days of racing. Bill France, the cofounder of NASCAR who strong-armed everyone else into giving him complete control of NASCAR, was one of those early racers.
And it's here, with the moonshine runs, that Thompson begins the real story of NASCAR. We ride along with the crafty drivers in their modified Ford Model As, then Ford Model Ts, then Ford V-8s (that was the model name: simply V-8) during Prohibition. We see how things got even more intense after Prohibition (which simply served to let the genie out of the bottle, so to speak). Then came World War II, and we follow some racers through that time--during which autoracing was suspended to support the war effort.
After WWII, auto production changed. Ford didn't keep up with the times, and a flood of more advanced automobiles, made by other companies, began to show up on the racetracks. Dodge (Chrysler) dominated much of racing throughout the 1960s (Richard Petty drove Dodges), with stiff competition from Chevrolet.
Information not mentioned in the book
Ford had never optimized its cylinder heads for airflow. The ports were large, but weren't shaped properly to keep fuel suspended at high flow rates (the air was too "choppy.). The leader in cylinder heads, for quite some time, was Chrysler. In later years, master mechanics could rework Chevy and Dodge heads to precisely match characteristics all the way through the intake system--so it really didn't make any difference as long as you ran Chevy or Dodge. But in the drivetrain it made a big difference.
Chevys blew out rear ends and transmissions, but the Dodges were overengineered except for having lousy suspensions and chintzy interiors. On many tracks, you saw Chevys with Ford rear ends--and the Dodges often used Dodge truck rear ends for the same high durability.
Chrysler excelled in raw power. The first year Chrysler released the Dodger Charger with a 440 engine, it sponsored four 440-equipped cars in a race (I don't recall if that was NASCAR). Those cars took 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places. The answer to that was to change the rules so that a 440 would be too big to be legal. In street races, 440s would leave the vaunted Hemi cars eating their dust--because you could quickly raise the horsepower with aftermarket parts (not so with the Hemi). Interestingly, the fastest completely stock car in the quarter mile was a '72 Chevy Chevelle with a 396 engine and a gear ratio biased for the quarter mile.
Back to the book
Auto production wasn't the only change. Bill France changed the management and promotion of racing, allowing NASCAR to arise above all competitors to become the face of "stock car" racing to most of America. The myth surrounding the rise of NASCAR is intriguing, partly because it portrays Bill France in a "larger than life way." But the myth isn't nearly as interesting as the real story.
And, coincidentally, Bill France actually was "larger than life." He was 6 feet, 5 inches tall, had a booming voice, and had a way about him that made folks leery of crossing him. He was audacious, capricious, and self-serving. Those who had dealings with him called him a dictator. Red Vogt, the legendary master mechanic who was the lifelong friend of France, didn't like the way France took things over. But he was quoted in the book as saying nobody else could do it and it needed to be done. I don't recall the exact quote, but it's in there.
So, NASCAR got its start thanks to incredibly bad public policy. Amazing mechanics gave cars abilities to do things their designers never dreamed of, and drivers who learned their craft to outrun police were able to draw those abilities out to put on impressive races.
That was the start of racing, and Driving with the Devil shows us the various people and situations that brought it to where it is today. Which is why we're all familiar with the announcement that starts each race, "Gentlemen. Start...your...engines!"
This book was so engrossing, I crossed its finish line much faster than I had anticipated. If you don't rev up your reading with it, I think you're missing out.
A profile of Southern culture.......2007-08-03
I have never been a NASCAR fan, but this book is one of the best books I have ever read. Neal Thompson's profiles of the characters in his book gives me insight into my own family's history, most of whom lived in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee in the late 1800's. Thompson's book clearly highlights the "just want to be left alone" attitude of the people in that region.
great tale, even for non-NASCAR fans.........2007-05-10
I have never really watched more than 10 minutes of a NASCAR race; despite this. I really enjoyed this book. Based on hundreds of original interviews, the author weaves an engrossing tale of moon-shiners, swindles, and daredevils who turned a weekend hobby into a billion dollar industry.
The author tells a good story and includes just enough technical car talk to keep it authentic, without becoming a book for gear heads. The author does not rush through the book and it is not a quick read. He carefully and slowly builds the story.
I tried watching NASCAR after reading the book, and it made me long for the old days of dirt tracks, fist-fights, and $500.00 racing budgets. I would love to see today's NASCAR stars race on dirt...
Your NASCAR Time Capsule.......2007-04-12
Get a taste of all things southern in this well-researched history of NASCAR. You'll go back in time to the 1940's when the sport first began.
Interesting book........2007-04-11
I really liked this book even though I am not a NASCAR fan. If you are interested in history and the south you will enjoy this book. I am looking forward to reading his first book and his new book that comes out in August.
Book Description
The lean revolution is here. And while you may understand that this revolution is a profound shift away from the traditions of mass production, the concept still causes many people to scratch their head and ask, "what exactly is lean manufacturing?" Lean is much more than techniques. It is a way of thinking-a whole-systems approach that creates a culture in which everyone in the organization continuously improves their process and production. Yet even for those organizations that have come to understand the power of lean, it may be a lost opportunity if they lack the knowledge to implement its powerful concepts. Or, receiving only a piece of the puzzle, they end up falling far short of lean's potential benefits. Not surprisingly, implementing lean manufacturing has proved a challenge for many U.S. companies.
But organizations have succeeded, and now you have a unique opportunity to benefit from their experience. In Becoming Lean, Jeffrey Liker has compiled a collection of stories from today's manufacturers already on the front line of the lean revolution. Here is the first book to go beyond descriptions of lean management to include powerful first-hand accounts of the complete process of change, its impact on the entire organization, and the rewards and benefits of becoming lean. Twelve American manufacturing companies tell their stories of successfully implementing lean methods. In their own words, the authors offer personalized accounts of their organization's lean transformation-including struggles, successes, and surprises. Many of the executives and managers who led the charge to lean in their own organizations tell their stories here for the first time. Some of the companies you'll read about include General Motors, Freudenberg-NOK, Gelman Sciences, Western Geophysical Exploration Products, Garden State Tanning, Donnely Corporation, and Cedarworks. The accounts provide not only a realistic view of what it takes to get lean, but evidence of the performance benefits of lean production systems.
Customer Reviews:
Very Informative.......2005-07-21
This book is exactly what I was looking. It provides an detailed overview of Lean Manufacturing, from its history to examples of implementation in US manufacturing facilities today.
If you are looking for a detailed overview and want to understand what lean manufacturing is all about, then I highly recommend this book. I have passed it on to our CEO (with specific sections marked) and it has sparked great discussion concerning our manufacturing methods.
PRACTICAL.......2003-04-30
BECOMING LEAN
Probably one of the better "lean" production books, because most books will tell you what lean production is. We have all heard the buzzwords, kaizen, quality circles, empowerment, kanban, benchmarking. but one is still left with their peculiar situation. There is always the thought that this particular company or industry is does not lend itself to lean production and is the exception to the rule. "Becoming Lean" is the account of some diverse companies on the road to lean production. The attempt of make each company fit a certain production model and achieve its goal. I recommend this book for teaching by example, instead of dealing with just theory.
A Data Bound Argument for Lean.......1999-01-28
This is the real stuff - not academic theory but real examples of "lean" written by the people that made it happen. The concluding chapter on "what we have learned about becoming lean" pulls it all together in a neat package. This is a must read for anyone who enjoyed Womack's book on "Lean Thinking". We have applied these learnings at this company with great results.
The most insightful first-hand account of implementing lean........1999-01-13
This book covers a number of great insights into the journey to leanness. It has the unique angle of having its case studies written by the people from the companies profiled in the studies. This gives a first hand review of the accomplishments and roadblocks that are part of becoming lean by those that went through them. Becoming Lean also gives accounts from people with personal experience from working for Toyota while they transplanted to North America to how the Japanese school system compares to and contrasts from the American school systems. In general, this book gives an excellent understanding that only a first-hand account can do. If you want to learn what it means to become lean this book is a must and should be used as a reference book while going through the lean transformation!
A must read for companies thinking of lean implementation........1999-01-12
"Becoming Lean" delivers the promise of its title by documenting case studies of successful lean implementations in diverse industries. The step-by-step accounts of the implementors (CEOs, Presidents, and consultants) identify successful strategies and execution, as well as problems encountered during the implementations.
Having worked in manufacturing for 29 years, I'm ecstatic that American companies are now understanding that we engineer and manufacture products in a global market. The only way to ensure long term survival is to deliver the highest quality at an affordable price (and cost), precisely when the customer wants it!
Lean Manufacturing is the only way to achieve ALL of these fundamental requirements. "Becoming Lean" provides the tools to get your company either started, or back on track, on the road to Lean success.
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