Henry Ford's Lean Vision

Japanese manufacturers have made concepts like kaizen (continuous improvement), poka-yoke (mistake-proofing), and just-in-time famous. When the Japanese began to adopt these techniques from the Ford Motor Company during the early twentieth century, they knew exactly what they were getting: proven methods for mass-producing any product or delivering any service cheaply but well. Henry FordAs methods, however, went well beyond the synergistic and mutually supporting techniques that constitute what we now call lean manufacturing. They included the soft sciences, the organizational psychology that makes every employee a partner in the drive for success. In Henry FordAs Lean Vision, William A. Levinson draws from Henry FordAs writings, the procedures in his factories, and historical anecdotes about the birth of lean in Japan to show that the philosophy that revolutionized Japanese manufacturing was the same philosophy that grew the Ford Motor Company into a global powerhouse.