The New Manufacturing Challenge: Techniques for Continuous Improvement
- Book Review,
by Kiyoshi Suzaki
From Library Journal
Maintaining world competitiveness has been the clarion call for many industries in the 1980s. For manufacturing companies, improving production efficiency has been the key. This work lays out specific suggestions for improving manufacturing techniques on the shop floor. The chapters, profusely illustrated, treat topics such as quick setup, job rotation, U-shaped production lines, and preventive maintenance. In each, the author uses his diverse experience as an efficiency expert for several leading consulting houses to good advantage. However, the volume lacks a strong philosophical framework and comes off rather like a dry list of helpful hints. Recommended only for production specialists. Gene R. Laczniak, Coll. of Business Administration, Marquette Univ., MilwaukeeCopyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
Brian Kelley Plant Manager, Cummins Engine Company Suzaki's book is a practitioner's book -- not another theory book.
Book Description
As a consultant, Kiyoshi Suzaki has helped scores of Fortune 500 clients improve manufacturing operations and get the job done faster, cheaper, better, and safer. Now, in this detailed "operating manual" -- full of more step-by-step applications than any other book available -- Suzaki spells out new options in production and employee resources that can help American industry regain the cutting edge in price, quality, and delivery of products. A well-known expert in the field, Suzaki begins with the premise that "if it doesn't add value, it's waste" -- a concept devised by Henry Ford and later used by Toyota. He recaps what Toyota identifies as the seven most prominent forms of waste in factories. Most importantly, he meticulously details steps individuals can take to "simplify, combine, and eliminate operations" -- thereby reducing waste, improving quality, and saving money. Describing in detail the basic techniques culled from Japanese industrial philosophy and procedure, Suzaki shows how small, family-run businesses and billion-dollar American corporations from a wide range of industries -- automotive, electronics, cosmetics, and even defense contractors -- are meeting the manufacturing challenge today -- demolishing the widely held belief that most American manufacturers have become distribution organizations for products manufactured overseas. In addition, he links his methodology with several successful production systems, from Just-In-Time Production, Total Quality Control, Total Productive Maintenance to Computer Integrated Manufacturing. Throughout this practical handbook, he places emphasis squarely on the shop floor and grounds his approach in easy, yet powerful techniques everybody can understand and implement today. Illustrated with numerous charts and exhibits, The New Manufacturing Challenge shows how to integrate people and techniques to improve the workplace and, thus, strengthen any company's competitiveness in the global marketplace.
About the Author
Kiyoshi Suzaki is president of The Eucalyptus Group in Pacific Palisades, California and an internationally recognized consultant on manufacturing competitiveness in various industries in the United States, Europe, and the Far East. Besides consulting, he lectures in major universities, serves on the board of directors of several U.S. companies and as an advisor to Japan Technology Transfer Association. Mr. Suzaki is author and co-author of two books on manufacturing published in Japan and France.
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