A 2006 Shingo Prize Winner for Excellence In Manufacturing Research, this book delivers a practitioner’s view of Lean manufacturing. It provides a comprehensive view of Toyota's Lean manufacturing system, looks at the origins and underlying principles of Lean, discusses practical problem solving for Lean production, and details activities that support involvement, including Kaizen circles and suggestion systems. This edition is updated with expanded information on the Lean Improvement Process; Production Physics and Little's Law; Value Stream Thinking; the Hoshin Planning and Execution Tree diagram, and Problem Solving by way of the Five Why method.