faculty book excerpt
Coauthored by Loyola Professor of Business John Nicholas, PhD, and retired manufacturing manager Avi Soni, The Portal to Lean Production: Principles and Practices for Doing More with Less (Auberbach Publications, 2006) describes the steps, difficulties, and rewards of implementing lean production. The book moves beyond concepts to address practical matters, providing enough information for readers to begin implementing lean production within their organizations.
We grew up in awe of the things around us—especially things that are manufactured and products of technology—and we dreamed that one day we would both help design and make those things. Although on seemingly divergent career paths, our lives crossed because of a passion we shared: besides an interest in building things, we also cared about the way businesses go about doing this. We are convinced that, in manufacturing, the best way is lean production.
We wrote this book to describe our journey through lean production; however, we also wanted to go beyond our journey so that interested readers would learn enough that they might begin that journey on their own.
The story of lean production is like a movie that on occasion has been rereleased, each time with a different title. Fifty years ago lean production was called the Toyota production system (TPS), then later just-in-time (JIT), zero-inventory, and world-class manufacturing. We cannot say what lean production will be called tomorrow, but our conviction is that lean production is the best way known to manufacture things, and it will remain so in the foreseeable future. Our hope is to instill in you enough interest and knowledge so you too will want to start on the journey.