Lean Manufacturing Books: The Complete Guide (67 Books)

Value-stream mapping to create value and eliminate muda.

By Mike Rother & John Shook.

Learning to See is a spiral bound workbook that is perfect for Lean practitioners. It takes the reader step-by-step through the process of creating a value stream map. It does this by way of a worked example in the book. Each section is clearly laid out and contains clear diagrams and informative sidebars.

More information: Learning to See

Mapping the extended value stream

By Dan Jones & Jim Womack.

More information: Seeing the Whole

An action guide for managers, engineers & production associates

By Mike Rother & Rick Harris.

This book is produced in the same format as Learning to See. The focus of this book though is on creating flow throughout a process. This is a natural progression from Learning to See. In a lean transformation, a value stream map is used to identify opportunities for improvement. Once a process has been identified as a constraint, this workbook can be used to improve the flow at a process level.

More information: Creating Continuous Flow

A lean production-system improvement guide for production-control, operations, and engineering professionals.

By Art Smalley.

More information: Creating Level Pull

A lean material-handling guide for operations, production-control, and engineering professionals.

By Rick Harris, Chris Harris & Earl Wilson.

More information: Making Materials Flow

Banish fire fighting and increase customer service

By Ian Glenday (@IanGlenday).
Foreword by Daniel T. Jones

A Lean Action Workbook from the Lean Enterprise Academy.

More information: Breaking Through to Flow

Zero Maintenance Time - Full Added Value Workbook

By Bodo Wiegand, Ralf Langmaack & Thomas Baumgarten.

Also includes an appendix chapter "Toyota's Maintenance Practices" by Art Smalley.

More information: Lean Maintenance System

Using the A3 management process to solve problems, gain agreement, mentor, and lead.

By John Shook.
Foreword by Jim Womack.

More information: Managing to Learn

A leader's guide to planning and execution.

By Pascal Dennis (@AuthorPascal).

Written by Pascal Dennis this “leader’s guide to planning and execution” gives a clear walkthrough the process of strategy deployment. Highly recommended if you need to clarify, align and focus on your major initiatives.

More information: Getting the Right Things Done

Tools to sustain lean conversions

By David Mann (@lean_mann).

David Mann’s superb work on how to sustain lean conversions. Learn about the four key principles of lean management:

• leader standard work
• visual controls
• daily accountability process
• discipline

More information: Creating a Lean Culture

A novel of lean turnaround.

By Freddy Ballé & Michael Ballé (@Michael_Balle).

The Gold Mine is a novel of a lean turnaround. That’s right, a novel! This is great for those who find traditional textbooks and how to guides dull and boring. You can follow the characters through the story and you’ll be amazed at exactly how much you learn in the process.

More information: The Gold Mine

Based upon the novel by Freddy & Michael Ballé.

Leader's Study Guide developed by Tom Ehrenfeld (@Tomehrenfeld).

More information: A Leader's Study Guide to The Gold Mine

A novel of lean transformation.

By Freddy Ballé & Michael Ballé (@Michael_Balle).
Foreword by Jeffrey K. Liker.

This is the sequel to the international best-selling novel The Gold Mine.

More information: The Lean Manager

How to use just-in-time techniques to streamline your office.

By Jim Thompson.

More information: The Lean Office

By Jim Peterson & Roland Smith, Ph.D.

More information: The 5S Pocket Guide

Building participation through shared information.

By Michel Greif.

More information: The Visual Factory

A plain language guide to the world's most powerful production system.

By Pascal Dennis (@AuthorPascal).
Foreword by John Shook.

More information: Lean Production Simplified

Achieving success every time with smarter FMEAs.

By John J. Casey.

This excellent book puts a different spin on the familiar FMEA process used by engineers to reduce defects. The author proposes that the typical approach to a FMEA, reviewing the process steps and asking what can go wrong, is a never ending task. You'll never reach zero defects because you are chasing an infinite number of possible failure modes. Strategic Error-Proofing outlines an alternative approach focused on what needs to go right at each stage of the process to ensure success. This shift allows engineers to provide operators with simple, inexpensive devices that help them ensure their work is correct and no defects get passed forward. Highly recommended!

More information: Strategic Error-Proofing

A proven system for measuring and managing the lean enterprise.

By Brian Maskell & Bruce Baggaley.

The book includes a CD-ROM with a detailed lean accounting diagnostic, forms and diagrams to support the transformation to lean accounting.

More information: Practical Lean Accounting

A commonsense, low-cost approach to management.

By Masaaki Imai.

More information: Gemba Kaizen

The foundation of lean.

By Donald A. Dinero.

This book explores the Training Within Industry (TWI) program, developed by the United States during the second world war and used by Toyota for years.

The author covers the four modules of TWI:

• Job Instruction
• Job Methods
• Job Relations
• Program Development

The book also comes with a CD containing the original TWI bulletins issued by the U.S. government in the 1940s.

More information: Training Within Industry

The nuts and bolts of making assembly operations flow.

By Michel Baudin (@mbaudin).

More information: Lean Assembly

Designing, constructing and managing a lean assembly line.

By Chris A. Ortiz.

More information: Kaizen Assembly

Commemorative edition of Ford's 1926 classic.

By Henry Ford.

More information: Today and Tomorrow

A handbook for strategic procurement.

By Jeffrey P. Wincel.

More information: Lean Supply Chain Management

Combining six sigma quality with lean speed. Achieve major cost, inventory, and lead time reductions in less than a year.

By Michael L. George.

More information: Lean Six Sigma

A graphical glossary for lean thinkers.

Compiled by the Lean Enterprise Institute (@LeanDotOrg).

More information: Lean Lexicon

Integrating lean, six sigma, TPM and TRIZ.

By John Bicheno.

More information: Fishbone Flow

A simplified approach to identifying, correcting, and reporting workplace errors.

By Max Ammerman.

The Root Cause Analysis Handbook describes a 9 step process for finding the root cause of a single significant event. In other words, an event where a reoccurrence is not acceptable.

Each of the 9 steps are accompanied by hints (to make the process easier) and shortcuts (to make the process faster), as well as common pitfalls to avoid.

The appendices include data gathering forms, causal factor category list, other root cause analysis tools, blank problem identification and correction (PIC) forms and worksheets, and a healthcare example.

This book is recommended for quality engineers, managers, safety managers and teams implementing ISO or QS initiatives.

More information: The Root Cause Analysis Handbook

Effective solutions to everyday problems every time.

By Dean L. Gano.

More information: Apollo Root Cause Analysis

Creating enterprise excellence through the technologies of the visual workplace.

By Gwendolyn D. Galsworthy Ph.D. (@DrGalsworth).

More information: Visual Workplace - Visual Thinking

A critical component of Toyota's PDCA management system.

By Durward K. Sobek II & Art Smalley.

More information: Understanding A3 Thinking

Insights on implementation. Collected practices and cases.

By Productivity Press (@leaninsiderblog).

The book is split into 3 sections: focusing on the customer, improving flow and taking the right steps. In total there are 18 chapters.

More information: The Lean Office

Quality in design and processes.

By Pierre C. Guerindon.

This book provides a 10 step methodology for converting a traditional factory to a continuous flow operation.

More information: Continuous Flow Manufacturing