The Lean Toolbox ^{4th Ed.}

This is the 4^th edition of a book that has become a standard reference to Lean tools and thinking in the UK, Scandinavia, South Africa and Australia. Like earlier editions, this book is written in plain language for busy Lean practitioners and managers at all levels.

Previous editions sold almost 100,000 copies, and have been translated into Danish and Swedish. Earlier editions were prescribed at several universities (including Cardiff, Cranfield, Warwick, Cambridge and Ashridge) and large numbers were purchased by organisations such as The Manufacturing Institute, Welsh Development Agency, Institute of Operations Management, Manufacturing Advisory Service, and the Danish DRF.

This edition is once again a significant update and revision, reflecting the way that Lean has expanded in breadth and scope, into an ever-widening range of industries and organisational functions. It is of relevance to all organisational levels.

In this edition, Matthias Holweg has joined the original author, John Bicheno.

1. The Fourth Edition of the Lean Toolbook
   1. Going Back
   2. Lean, Sustainability and Change
   3. Lean Evolution
2. Philosophy
   1. Lean Seeks the 'Ideal Way'
   2. Lean is Not Tools — Or Even a Set of Integrated Tools
   3. Muda, Muri and Mura
   4. A Formula for 'Lean'
   5. Lean is 'System'
   6.  Lean is Continouos Learning
   7. Lean is Both Revolution and Evolution
   8. Lean is 'Distributed Decisions'
   9. Two Analogies and the 'F's: The Orchestra and Fitness
   10. The Five Lean Principles
   11. The 25 Characteristics of Lean
   12. The Toyota Way
   13. The Lean Enterprise House
3. Value and Waste
   1. Value
   2. Value and TRIZ
   3. Muda and the 7 Wastes
   4. 'Type 1' and 'Type 2' Muda, Elimination and Prevention
   5. Value Added, Non-Value Added (Necessarily and Avoidable)
   6. Ohno's 7 Wastes
   7. The New Wastes
   8. Gemba and 'Learning to See'
   9. Time-Based Competition
4. Lean Transformation Frameworks
   1. The House of Lean
   2. The Flow Framework
   3. The Hierarchical Transformation Framework
   4. General Approaches to Lean Implementation
   5. The Failure Modes of Lean Implementations
   6. The Wiremold Case
   7. A Warning on Lean Improvement
5. Strategy, Planning, Deployment
   1. Operations Strategy
   2. Tying in Operations Strategy with Lean
   3. Unerstanding the Process: The Product-Process Matrix
   4. Understanding the Customer
   5. Value Stream Economics: What to Make Where
   6. The Essential Paretos
   7. Formulating an Operations Strategy
   8. Policy Deployment/Hoshin Kanri
6. Preparing for Flow
   1. Demand Management
   2. Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
   3. Takt Time and Pitch Time
   4. Activity Timing and Work Elements
   5. 5S
   6. Visual Management
   7. Standard Work, Standard Operating Procedures, and Job Breakdown Analysis
   8. Changeover Reduction (SMED)
   9. Small Machines, Avoiding Monuments and Thinking Small
7. Mapping Assesments and Analysis
   1. The Value Stream Implementation Cycle
   2. Stages of Mapping
   3. Mapping and Implementation
   4. Types of Mapping
   5. Lean Assesments and Principles
8. Layout and Cell Design
   1. Layout, Cell and Line Design, Lean Plant Layout
   2. Major Types of Layout: The Product Process Matrix
   3. General Layout: Good and Not So Good at the Factory Level
   4. Material Handling: Good and Not So Good at the Factory Level
   5. Cells
   6. Cell Balancing
   7. Chaku-Chaku Cell or Line
   8. Virtual Cells
   9. Moving Lines and Pulse Lines
   10. Ergonomics
9. Scheduling
   1. The Level Scheduling
   2. Constructing a Lean Scheduling System: Eight Building Blocks
   3. The Eleven Scheduling Concepts
10. Theory of Constraints and Factory Physics
    1. A Drum Buffer Rope Illustration
    2. Dependent Events and Statistical Fluctuations
    3. Constraints, Bottlenecks and Non-Bottleneck Resources: The Synchronous Rules
    4. The Law of Factory Physics
    5. Conflicts Between Lean Thinking and MRP Thinking?
    6. The Theory of Constraints Improvements Cycle
11. Quality
    1. A Framework for Lean Quality
    2. Complexity
    3. Variation
    4. Mistakes
    5. Six Sigma
    6. How to Calculate the Sigma Level of a Process
    7. Integrating Lean and Six Sigma
    8. Mistake-Proofing (Pokayoke)
12. Improvement
    1. Improvement Cycles: PDCA, DMAIC, 8D, IDEA, and TWI
    2. 'Five Whys', Root Causes and Six Honest Serving Men
    3. Organising for Improvement
    4. Continouos Improvement Approaches
    5. Kaizen
    6. Mess Management
    7. A3 Problem Solving and Reports
    8. Communications Board
13. Managing Change
    1. People and Change in Lean
    2. What is the 'Social System'?
    3. Models for Change Management
    4. Creating the Lean Culture
    5. Training within Industry (TWI)
    6. The Adoption Curve and Key People
14. Sustainability — Making Change Stick
    1. Process (and System) Sustainability
    2. Staff Sustainability
15. New Product Development and Introduction
    1. Four Objectives and Six Trade-Offs
    2. Wastes in New Product Development
    3. Toyota's Approach to Product Development
    4. Cost
    5. Speed and Levelling: Critical Chain & Lean Project Management
    6. Quality
    7. Additional Tools for Lean Product Development
16. Creating the Lean Supply Chain
    1. What is Supply Chain Management?
    2. Dynamic Distortions
    3. Managing Supplier Relations
    4. Supply Chain Collaboration
    5. Lean Logistics
    6. Order Fulfilment and Product Customisation
    7. Creating High-Performance Supply Chains
17. Accounting and Measurement
    1. Lean Accounting
    2. Performance Measures
    3. The Basic Lean Measures
    4. Target Costing, Kaizen Costing and Cost Down
18. Lean — How It All Came About
    1. Lean Before Toyota
    2. Toyota: The Birthplace of Lean
    3. Why Do We Call It 'Lean'?
19. Further Resources — Where to Get Help
    1. Companion Volumes
    2. Research Centres, Research Programmes and Web Resources
    3. Articles, Books and Videos
    4. Certification

One of the better overviews of LEAN and its thinking. Even if you're no Lean-fan, you can learn a lot of manufacturing thinking from this book, as it manages to convey a lot of information in small portions, with pointers to where you may get more.

Unfortunately, it is useless if you're into services. And it is definetely not the first book on Lean you should read, as the audience is someone with some Lean knowledge that wishes to know (a lot) more.

All in all, a pretty good book, even if it is very hard to read from cover to cover. It is better used as a Lean dictionary in my view.