The Change Business Ltd
developing people
delivering projects
when is the right time to learn on a project?
Study-Action Teams
are a great way to
learn from others
Books reviewed
Product development for the lean enterprise
![Book reviews
you will find a list of other books that have influenced our thinking here
These reviews are © The Change Business Ltd 2009
Shook, John (2008) Managing to Learn : Using the A3 management process to solve problems, gain agreement, mentor, and lead; Lean Enterprise Institute; Cambridge, USA 138pp
Sobek, Durward K & Smalley, Art (2008) Understanding A3 Thinking: A Critical Component of Toyota’s PDCA Management System; Productivity Press, Taylor & Francis Group; Boca Raton, USA 165pp
Both these books are about the A3 process. Using the A3 tool can help you and people in your organisation to:
build consensus for action
develop your staff - particularly in the area of rigorously thinking issues through with others who are or may be affected
align actions to corporate and/or project goals
document learning so that it can be re-used on subsequent phases/projects
innovate, plan, solve problems
make succinct evidence-based proposals where the evidence is gathered through scientific method - the Plan-Do-Check-Act PDCA cycle.
Like a limerick, an A3 is a form not a formula; unlike a limerick there is a process for preparing one. The process follows the PDCA cycle (I prefer the lamda variation discussed in the review of Kennedy et al below) and systematically challenges the author’s pre-conceptions and assumptions. New learning is confirmed through experimentation.
Both books cover a lot of the same ground—structure, process of preparation, formats, pitfalls—both are by authors with personal experience of working in Toyota—both are well illustrated and fairly short—and the approach of each is different and useful.
Managing to learn comes at the topic from two different viewpoints—Porter, a young manager charged with preparing his first A3, & Sanderson, his line manager. This way of presenting the ideas is initially challenging but brings the topic alive in ways that are helpful to practicing managers. The title and the format of the book emphasise the potential of A3s for developing the skills and knowledge of the individuals and teams asked to prepare them and the role of line managers in supporting that process.
The book is attractively presented with lots of white space which can be used for making personal notes. As with so many LEI books there is no index but there are examples of A3s in a pocket in the back cover.
Understanding A3 thinking is the more conventional of the books. It describes A3 thinking (7 elements–logical thinking; objectivity; results & process; synthesis, distillation & visualisation; alignment; coherence within & consistency across; systems viewpoint), three different forms of A3 (problem-solving, proposal and status report) and offers guidance on form, style and supporting structures.
This volume includes a number of examples of A3s as well as an index.
12 Nov 09
Kennedy, M., Harmon, K., Minnock, E. (2008) Ready, Set, Dominate: Implement Toyota’s Set-Based Learning for Developing Products and Nobody Can Catch You; The OAKLEA Press; Richmond, USA
Ready, Set, Dominate is in the form of a novel - a second instalment of the story begun in Kennedy’s earlier book Product Development for the Lean Enterprise. The story shows why it is important to install the whole system not just pick and choose the parts you like. Built around the late Dr Allen Ward’s lamda idea (a refinement of PDCA), the key points are presented in a structured way with sufficient tension to keep turning the pages.
After a recap of the back story in Product Development for the Lean Enterprise, the authors discuss:
the importance of going to see for yourself
finding the root cause
taking time to find alternative models/ideas for how to proceed
why its important to spend time discussing the above so as to reach consensus on the way forward
At the end of the book are descriptions of a couple of actual companies - cases indirectly referred to in the story.
I put off reading this book for months because I was put off by the word dominate in the title. That was my loss, this is an important book, particularly for architects and others involved in coordinating design for construction and as I read it I could see all sorts of applications in the construction phase too - construction like product development is project-based production.
Let down by the absence of an index, the book can stand alone or it can be read a sequel to:
Kennedy, Michael N. (2003) Product Development for the Lean Enterprise: Why Toyota’s System is Four Times More Productive and How You Can Implement It; The Oaklea Press; Richmond, Virginia (this is an image of the old cover - the cover of the new paperback edition looks more like the later book above)
Written in form of a novel, Product Development for the Lean Enterprise was one of the first books to discuss the Toyota New Product Development System (TPDS).
The story is based around a fictitious technology company operating in a variety of markets. Each chapter is based around one key idea and concludes with a discussion of the learning points.
It introduces a number of key ideas:
Toyota’s paradigm is radically different from that which exists in most companies
the importance of leadership
managing change and involving everyone in building the vision
Set-based concurrent engineering – keeping a number of ideas in play until the last responsible moment.
trade-off curves - a way to capture learning within the set-based process
the entrepreneurial system designer - what Toyota call the Chief Engineer
responsibility-based planning
This book has influenced numerous design teams in the US in the context of a Study-Action Team. It is worth reading with Ready, Set, Dominate.
8 Nov 09
Emi Osono, Norihiko Shimizu & Hirotaka Takeuchi (2008) Extreme Toyota: Radical contradictions that drive success at the worlds best manufacturer Wiley
ISBN: 978-0-470-26762-2
Extreme Toyota is a powerful exegesis of The Toyota Way 2001, Toyota’s own condensation of the lore and legends that have created the company we know today, lies at the heart of the way it operates and are the glue that binds the company together. Based on 8 years of research, the three Japanese authors draw together the experience of senior Toyota people across the world.
This book is not about lean production per se but about the systems and structures that made lean production, the Toyota Production System (TPS) and the Toyota Product Development System (TPDS) possible. Its about the way Toyota is steered (managed is the wrong word, it is a much subtler process than that). The authors set the book in the context of the shift from an industrial to a knowledge society and demonstrate the many ways that Toyota is developing its assembly line associates as knowledge workers, ideas that could pay handsome dividends in construction.
There are important lessons here for those who manage design and construction organisations. The way Toyota structures its global business is not dissimilar to the way project based production is organised in construction. What this book offers are a range of ideas that would help bind our construction and/or design businesses together and help learning on one project save time and energy on subsequent projects.
The book’s 11 chapters give a good overview of the content:
1 Extreme Toyota: An Organization Powered by Creative Contradictions
2 Six Opposing Forces That Drive the Company's Expansion—and Keep It from Breaking Apart
3 The Force of Impossible Goals
4 Eagerness to Experiment
5 Local Customization
6 The Founders' Philosophies
7 Toyota's Nerve System—A Human Version of the World Wide Web
8 Up-and-In Human Resource Management
9 Toyota's Resource Base Investing in Efficiency
10 A Company Always in Danger
11 What Your Organization Can Learn from Toyota: Ten Powerful Contradictions
I strongly recommend this book.
Apr 09
Masaaki Sato (2008) The Toyota Leaders: An Executive Guide Vertical
ISBN: 1934287237
A useful complement to other books on Toyota, Sato provides an experienced journalist’s overview of the emergence of top leadership within Toyota since 1935. The book underlines the importance of the Toyoda precepts and how the company returns to them time and again; it shows how the character of the company has evolved through crisis and provides a good foundation for Osono et al's Extreme Toyota.
There are many interesting and revealing anecdotes - the origins of JIT at St Pancras Station in London in 1921 for example. Written especially for the US reader the book is let down by odd points of poor translation and editing.
Key points:
People pursue creative ideas most avidly in times of crisis - so Toyota actively set out to create low levels of crisis as the norm. this is linked to
Toyota is its own worst enemy - the fear of complacency setting in (both of these explain the thinking behind many of the ideas in Extreme Toyota)
Protecting the castle
Squeezing the towel dry
No secrets, simplify effort
the emphasis on striking a chord among the people - associates, suppliers and distributors.
Apr 09
Liker, Jeffrey K (2004) The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer McGraw Hill
ISBN-13: 978-0071392310
This is a vital book for designers and constructors because the 14 principles Liker describes are relevant to any organisation. Many in construction have read this book within the context of a Study-Action Team with powerful effect. Some have used it to align aspirations at the start of a project and others to begin a wider lean transformation. When I read the book with a leadership group at one of my clients, the sceptics quickly became fans and the ideas quickly began to infect the whole organisation not just the business unit I was working with.
The Toyota Way is well written & easy to read [there is also an abridged audiobook which does a competent job of getting across the key points without one of those deeply annoying American accents]. After a general introduction in which he emphasises the cultural and philosophical changes required of anyone involved in a lean transformation, Liker takes each of the 14 points in turn:

Liker’s 4Ps & 14 Principles
The final two chapters are devoted to a discussion of applying the Toyota Way in the reader’s organisation. If you only have time for one book read this and/or listen to the audiobook.
2 Dec 09](Book_Reviews_files/shapeimage_3.png)
