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Taiichi Ohno's Workplace Management | 
 enlarge | Author: Taiichi Ohno
Creator: Jon Miller
Publisher: Gemba Press
Category: Book
Buy New: $47.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 57566
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 146
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 9.9 x 6.8 x 0.6
ISBN: 0978638751
EAN: 9780978638757
ASIN: 0978638751
Publication Date: April 27, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
This classic work by the founding father of the Toyota Production System returns to print in a new translation. Ohno delivers timeless lessons on how to effectively manage the gemba actual place or work. He relates stories from across his nearly 40 years of struggle to establish the Toyota Production System as both a mindset and supporting behaviors of constant improvement. In the book s 37 chapters, Ohno covers a broad range of topics and lays out the fundamental philosophy of kaizen (continuous improvement) that has made Toyota the most successful automobile manufacturer today.
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| Customer Reviews:
Excellent, futher evidence why lean is so hard to copy June 17, 2008
This book is a compelation of 38 short chapters that originally were spoken narratives with Taiichi Ohno. Jon Miller took these wonderful gems and then translated into English. There's also an excellent Publisher's Foreword and even better Afterword taken from Taiichi's 1st TPS textbook.
Some concepts are likely to be unpopular and/or counterintuitive, such as scolding subordinates in front of others or most people are wrong 30-40% of the time. As such, this book is not for beginners or junior associates to lean thinking and the Toyota Production System.
Pro:
-Covers a wide range of management topics that are applicable to just about any gemba, not just lean or factory environments
-Shares logic behind philosophies, handy as well as interesting
-Excellent translation, reads/flows well, with footnotes that explain interesting nuances that would only be understood if you were Japanese or if you were very familiar with the language and culture
-Hardcover of high quality... has weathered my handling well
Con:
-Expensive book given that it is so short (about 130 pages) and many pages between chapters contain 50% white space
Nuetral:
-As a narrative turned text, there's only one simple illustration (in the Sakkaku chapter I think) and no photos.
-Also the index could possibly be improved (e.g kaiaku, sakkaku, the individual Japanese elements of 5S, etc. missing). Perhaps a listing of all terms and their definitions would be a handy reference, but in all fairness to Mr. Ohno and Mr. Miller, I do not think this book is for beginners and does not affect the quality of the book or its message.
Bottom line: the text is insightful and interesting, highly recommended. It was intriguing to read how things such as SMED came about, in Ohno's own words. I like to think that the book's simplicity/brevity will force me to think deeply about what I want/need to do and to seek my own answers and not those of others, focusing on the basic principles and building from there.
Not suitable for beginners April 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is - as mentioned bij others - a remarkable object, coming from one of the founder fathers of Toyota's Lean Adventure. The book is not written by him, but is the result of several discussions (or monologues) from Ohno. As such it is already possible to use as a study of Ohno himself.
However,I suppose that Ohno-san would not like to be a hero or a white knight. This is not lean thinking, where the real hero's are those who add real value to the endcustomer.
So, this book is of no help if you have not yet experienced by yourself what lean is or could be. Only when you experienced the long road to lean horizons, you can appreciate the thinkings and concerns of this man. This book will help you to reflect more deeply on problems and solutions. It will make it clear that lean is not an endpoint but a resentless never-ending marathon. Enjoy and suffer!
Maybe better than "Toyota Production System" October 22, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Taiichi Ohno's workplace management used to be pretty hard to get, but John Miller re-translated and re-published it so now it's available for a larger audience. The book contains content from some spoken interviews, so that makes it somewhat strange to read, at least in the beginning, but makes it actually nice.
This small book actually contains 38 chapters or which every one is one or two pages. Some of the chapters are extremely insightful in the way of thinking Taiichi Ohno used when thinking up ideas for the Toyota Production System. In this review I won't be able to go over all, so just highlight some point I really liked and remembered:
- Misconceptions Hidden within Common Sense explains that common sense is often actually not the right way of thinking and that you should follow your uncommon sense and try to think outside the accepted standard way of thinking (common sense)
- In "Wasted motion is not work" he explains that people make a mistake by thinking that "being at work" or "moving" you are actually "working". People ought to separate these so that they can improve their actual work.
- He makes strong points to make sure you make a difference between machine time and person time. If the machine is running then that's machine time and the person who is operating the machine can then do something different.
- In "Pitfall of cost calculations" he tries to show that you can prove whatever with cost calculations and that thats probably not the right way to make the decisions.
These are just examples of the huge amount of wisdom written in this small book. It's absolutely recommended and one of the books that I will re-read again and again to refresh my memory.
An absolute must.
Management Classic July 11, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Taiichi Ohno is known as the father of the Toyota Production System (TPS), also called lean manufacturing. Taichi Ohno dictated the text to the Japan Management Association (in a series of interviews in 1982), which gives the book a sense of listening to him talk about the ideas. I found the conversational tone made it very easy to read.
Workplace Management has earned a place among my favorite management books. I highly recommend it. It is packed with information. As a few rare management books do, this book is one that will reward reading and re-rereading and re-reading to get more and more understanding as you grow as a manager.
The translator has an excellent blog on lean manufacturing and has a series of very useful posts on this book - www.gembapantarei.com A visit there will let you know if you want to buy the book (and I think you will if you want to improve your understanding of management).
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