Lean Thinking

Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Revised and Updated

By: James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones

Narrated by: James P. Womack

Length: 4 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Expanded, updated, and more relevant than ever, this bestselling business classic by two internationally renowned management analysts shows how companies of any size in any industry can seize opportunities in the post-bubble economy.

Instead of constantly reinventing business models, lean thinkers go back to basics by asking what the customer really perceives as value. The next step is to line up value-creating activities for a specific product along a value stream while eliminating activities (usually the majority) that don't add value. Then the lean thinker creates a flow condition in which the design and the product advance smoothly and rapidly at the pull of the customer (rather than the push of the producer). Finally, as flow and pull are implemented, the lean thinker speeds up the cycle of improvement in pursuit of perfection. The first part of this book describes each of these concepts and makes them come alive with striking examples.

Lean Thinking clearly demonstrates that these simple ideas can breathe new life into any company in any industry in any country. But most managers need guidance on how to make the lean leap in their firm. Part II provides a step-by-step action plan, based on in-depth studies of more than fifty lean companies in a wide range of industries across the world.

Even those readers who believe they have embraced lean thinking will discover in Part III that another dramatic leap is possible by creating an extended lean enterprise for each of their product families that tightly links value-creating activities from raw materials to customer.

In Part IV, an epilogue to the original edition, the story of lean thinking is brought up-to-date with an enhanced action plan based on the experiences of a range of lean firms since the original publication of the book.

©1996, 2003 James Womack and Daniel Jones (P)2003 Simon & Schuster Inc. All Rights Reserved. AUDIOWORKS is an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster Inc.

Lots of practical advice, great info

Lots of practical advice, great info, and interesting examples and stories. I'm already quoting things from it at work.

doesn't follow the book after chapter 5

doesn't follow the book a lot of sections are left out throughout the early chapters then stopped following al together

great book!

Lots of information, I had to listen to chapters many times to fully understand the concepts. All of the information was pertinent though and clearly expressed, just hard to wrap your head around.

Great book wealth of Info

Any additional comments?

Book is great but audio was a disappointment did not follow book word for word. The middle chapter were not available.

Not the same as the hard book

Would you consider the audio edition of Lean Thinking to be better than the print version?

I like this version more than the hard book because the 2nd half of the book is only 2 chapters and gets to the point. The audio also combines two chapters into one (chap 11+ 15). However, the hard book has the examples, so if you want to see the lessons taught here in action, you will want the hard book.

Muy practico, enfocado a la mejora continua

tiene muchos consejos sobre la implementación del pensamiento lean, valioso si eres dueño de un negocio o buscas una guía para comenzar a aplicarlo

Good info, BORING listen

Womacks voice is possibly the worst narration I have come across. The information is exceptional, but is almost impossible to assimilate because of his voice. If ever there was an argument for authors hiring professional readers, it is this book.

No full book

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

This audiobook is not the full book. There are missing some important chapter from the book. The audio is not good, The author is a good writer but not as good narrater

It does not cover the entire book

I don't like audio books that don't cover the entire book. This is one of those audio books that you can't follow with the book

Not the full book

Buyer beware that this audiobook doesn’t not cover or follow the book after section 1