Andy & Me

If you are implementing lean at your place of work, read this book. The book uses a fictional company to teach lean implementation principles. People often want to see immediate results, and while there are immediate results in a lean implementation, it's the long game that provides the most value. For me, this book helped me see that progression in small bites that involves the people doing the work is the way to develop a sustainable lean culture. Great book that provides context. Takes about 5-6 hours to read.

Dennis Pascal took a bunch of TPS principles and packed them into a quick and easy to read work of fiction. It’s so fun to read I just wish the story was true!

Highly recommended. I just received this and tore through it. The book is a quick and light read, although you'll want to stop and let some of the TPS concepts sink in and re-read certain sections and illustrations. The story in this business novel is about on par with "The Goal", but it's easy enough to skip over the storyline (divorced Plant Manager fighting to see his kids, etc.) to read the real meat of the story -- insights and real day to day examples of PDCA and leadership models of lean/TPS. This book focuses on Hoshin planning and day-to-day leadership of a plant going through the lean transformation. The only reasons I give this 4 stars instead of 5 are A) the storyline in business novels like this always seem a bit forced and B) the book tends to shortchange the change management challenges -- people in the book tend to jump on board with the TPS immediately, testament I guess to the leadership of the Plant Manager and the Toyota Sensei, but not typical of all lean implementations. Details such as "I had to get rid of some people" are somewhat glossed over and could have been fleshed out in more detail (this is a short book). Still, this is a good complement to The Toyota Way and other detailed books on lean tools and practices.

I wish I would have read this book prior to my textbooks. It was a great way to set the groundwork in story format, representing both personal and professional story lines. I bought two more for coworkers to check in/out!

I do not usually like "business novels" because the story gets in the way of the ideas. "Andy & Me" is the exception. This short and readable book does a wonderful job of explaining the transformation of a production plant to the Toyota apporach to lean manufacturing. Reading this you will learn about a number of the lean "tools" but the book is not about lean tools, it is about why those tools are needed and why they work. It is also good to see a lean manufacturing book that recognizes the issues and problems of traditional cost accounting. I recommend this excellent book to anyone on the lean journey.

A business novel format that I recommend to people who will never manage to read one of the non-fiction descriptions of lean manufacturing. Helps to communicate the excitement of the lean journey with a story that illustrates the varying degrees of personal engagement and the business politics that tend to emerge. Probably not the book that will turn you into an expert, but perhaps the one that will make you into the enthusiast that goes out to learn more.

insightful story, providing an intrduction to Lean and Toyoto methods.It was an easy read. I will read again, first reviewing the study material at the end of each chapter.

This is a good book once you get over the similarities to 'The Goal'. Very much of it starts and tracks too much of the same scenario, but this time using the 'Lean' approach. With that aside, it does a good job tracking the emotions, excitement, frustrations, challenges and success of a lean journey in a manufacturing and assembly business. Not many lean tools are really described aside of the root cause and corrective action approach, but it provides a pretty realistic look at what happens inside a larger plant once the journey begins and people engage themselves. Andy and Me is a quick read and good for the novice or someone needing to `whet their whistle' on the lean approach.

Good book

Great book and very easy to read

Short rip off of "The Goal". The goal explains things much better in my opinion.

Excellent book

As soon as I had finished this book, I reread it - to get the most out of the material presented. It is the best written lean business novel I have seen (though I also like "Who's Counting" by Jerry Solomon - available on Amazon.com). The book launches straight into the lean journey and presents the issues and challenges well. It is a good introductory read to help you get to grips with the ideas. My problem with it is that it doesn't go into any detail. There is no explanation of how the culture is changed to support involvement on problem solving; or how to do 5S, or kaizen; or how to map the value stream. But it provides a great overview and it is upbeat in tone - great for getting your energy up on the start of the lean journey, or to refresh your spirits when problems arise. Easy to read on the train or plane too. Recommended.The author, Pascal Dennis, also wrote "Lean Production Simplified" a very clear plain English guide to lean principles and processes.