Jon Miller over at Gemba Panta Rei has announced that they have obtained the English language publication rights to Taiichi Ono’s book, Workplace Management and are accepting preorders. I nagged him incessantly to announce this in time for holiday shopping, make this one gift you get yourself this year. This is the classic on how lean manufacturing and the Toyota Production System was developed; all the basic tenets and concepts. If you recall, Jon had been translating his copy from Japanese and posting chapter excerpts at his site. The book is beautiful in its humility and simplicity; the writing clear, clean and conversational -and sometimes chiding. Chapter titles belie the book’s simplicity, written at a time when Toyota was much smaller; these ideas apply to your tiny business too. Consider these chapter titles as examples: If You Are Wrong, Admit It, Misconceptions Hidden within Common Sense, The Misconception that Mass Production is Cheaper, Fight the Robot Fad, and Shut the Machines Off! illustrate that large isn’t necessarily lean. You can compete too. Start small, grow smart.
Here are the details (excerpted from Gemba PantaRei) including chapter titles:
Workplace Management
Author: Taiichi Ohno
Translation by Jon Miller
ISBN: 978-0-9786387-5-7
180 pages, hardcover
Publisher: Gemba Press
Expected publishing date: March 1, 2007
Price: $47.95
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 your gemba – the actual place or work. He relates stories from across his nearly 40 years of struggle to establish the Toyota Production System as both the mindset and the 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.
To place your order, please call Kaizen Products at 1-877-GO-KAIZEN (1-877-465-2493), e-mail sales or place your order by credit card at our online store.
Contents
• Foreword
• Chapter 1: The Wise Mend Their Ways
• Chapter 2: If You Are Wrong, Admit It
• Chapter 3: Misconceptions Reduce Productivity
• Chapter 4: Go See What Didn’t Work with Your Own Eyes
• Chapter 5: Misconceptions Hidden within Common Sense
• Chapter 6: The Blind Spot in Cost Calculation
• Chapter 7: Don’t Fear Opportunity Losses
• Chapter 8: Limited Volume Production is to Produce at Low Cost
• Chapter 9: Reduced Inventory, Increased WIP
• Chapter 10: The Misconception that Mass Production is Cheaper
• Chapter 11: Wasted Motion is Not Work
• Chapter 12: Agricultural People Like Inventory
• Chapter 13: Improve Productivity Even with Reduced Volumes
• Chapter 14: Do Kaizen When Times Are Good
• Chapter 15: Just In Time
• Chapter 16: Grandpa Sakichi’s Jidoka Idea
• Chapter 17: The Goal: Improve Productivity Ten-Fold
• Chapter 18: Supermarket System
• Chapter 19: Toyota Made the Kanban System Possible
• Chapter 20: What I Learned About Forging Changeover from Toyota do Brasil
• Chapter 21: Rationalization is Doing what is Rational
• Chapter 22: Shut the Machines Off!
• Chapter 23: Producing at the Lowest Possible Cost
• Chapter 24: Fight the Robot Fad
• Chapter 25: Work is a Game of Wits with Subordinates
• Chapter 26: There Are No Supervisors at the Administrative Gemba
• Chapter 27: We Can Still Do a Lot More Kaizen
• Chapter 28: Wits Don’t Work Until Feel the Squeeze
• Chapter 29: Become a Reliable Boss
• Chapter 30: Seiri Seiton Seiso Seiketsu Shitsuke
• Chapter 31: There is a Correct Sequence to Kaizen
• Chapter 32: Operational Availability vs. Rate of Operation
• Chapter 33: The Difference Between Production Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering
• Chapter 34: The Pitfall of Cost Calculation
• Chapter 35: The Monaka System
• Chapter 36: Only the Gemba Can Do Cost Reduction
• Chapter 37: The Standard Time Should be the Shortest Time
• Afterword
• About the Author
• About the Translator
• Glossary
• Index
Order your copy of Taiichi Ohno’s Workplace Management today to save me the bother of nagging you later.