Here at last is the first-ever encyclopedic picture book of JIT. With 218 pages of photos, drawings, and diagrams, this unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at actual production and assembly plants illustrates exactly how JIT looks and functions. It shows the way each area of a JIT plant is set up and provides hundreds of useful ideas you can implement, including: Multiprocess handling Cell technology manufacturing One-piece flow Quick changeovers Visual control systems Kanban and andon If you've made the crucial decision to run production using JIT and want to show your employees what it's is all about--this book is a must. The photographs, from various Japanese production and assembly plants, provide vivid depictions of what work is like in a JIT environment. And the text, simple and easy to read, makes all the essentials crystal clear. Truly, a picture is worth a thousand words. You won't find a more accessible or enjoyable introduction to JIT anywhere. It's obvious why this is already one of our most popular books.
This is a very nice overview of lean, or "just in time" as this was referred to in 1988 when this book was published. There are many great "before and after" examples in the book that illustrate many lean principles. There are nice diagrams that show how the different lean tools fit together and support each other. Downsides to the book are that the pictures from Japan (with kanji character signs), which might turn off people in some American factories, and some terminology issues (what's commonly called "takt time" is referred to as "cycle time" in this book, which might cause confusion). I have dozens of lean books, but enjoy this book for the historical context (it's a very early lean book) and for the specific examples and lessons I can learn from in my plant's lean efforts.
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