All I Need To Know About Manufacturing I Learned In Joe's Garage: World Class Manufacturing Made Simple

by William B. Miller, Vicki L. Schenk

ALL I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MANUFACTURING I LEARNED IN JOE'S GARAGE explains basic principles of customer focused, high quality, low cost, on-time business management. This international bestseller is endorsed by reviewers from Business Week and other publications, and by numerous business and educational leaders.

ALL I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MANUFACTURING I LEARNED IN JOE'S GARAGE: World Class Manufacturing Made Simple is used by thousands of companies, large and small throughout the world, to improve profitability, performance, and employee satisfaction. The book uses a lighthearted short story that explains in easily understandable terms the concepts and techniques of 21st-century business management. It illustrates clearly how to forge a strategy for the future that will lead to outstanding personal and professional achievement.

...JOE'S GARAGE is a classic teaching fable valuable in all business functions. It is essential reading for anybody who wishes to understand how to succeed in today’s environment of increasingly tough global competition. An annotated reading list and comprehensive glossary are provided.

ALL I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MANUFACTURING I LEARNED IN JOE'S GARAGE: World Class Manufacturing Made Simple is simply the best, and most cost-effective, roadmap for attainment of world class results. Download a FREE SAMPLE of ...JOE’S GARAGE to judge the book for yourself and see specific comments from business leaders, educators, and media reviewers.

Genres: Business, Management, Nonfiction, Engineering, Leadership

104 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 31, 1993

About the author

Father William "Bill" Miller is the author of "The Gospel According to Sam: Animal Stories for the Soul (www.facebook.com/The.Gospel.According...) and the upcoming releases: "The Beer Drinker's Guide to God: Spirituality for Real People", "Awakening the Sleeping Giant: Discovering Your Life's Passion and Potential" and "NET: How Real Churches Really Grow". A uniquely engaging storyteller, this Texawaiian lives most of the time on the island of Kauai with his new poi dog Nawiliwili Nelson, where he is a parish priest. "Father Bill" is a part-time resident of the funky West Texas arts town of Marfa, where his already legendary live music venue Padre's has opened to rave reviews. He knows that he is blessed. And he is grateful. To God. And to Dog. "

Reviews

[Bob Wallner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love simple little books that provide profound insight and can be absorbed in a couple hours. Joe's Garage is that type of book. Reader is able to be read in less than two hours (even at my turtle pace) it walks you through the differences between "traditional" command and control manufacturing to a "new" type of "Japanese" manufacturing. Published in 2004, this book gives a great introduction to today's Lean or TQM Methodologies.

Like many fictional stories, or fables, there isn't a great deal of depth on how to implement. Rather the focus is on introducing the readers a new methodology and a new vocabulary. The very first "Lean book" I read was Pascal Dennis, "Andy and Me". Andy and Me had many similarities to Joe's garage and either book would be high on my list for people first starting out in Lean.

At the end of Joe's garage there is a supplemental reading list that now could be called "classics" along with a fairly extensive "Lean Dictionary".

Tom Faust - a 20+ year lean professional and my personal lean mentor in the back of the Kindle Credits says that, Joe's Garage is "Best overall explanation of the Toyota Production System".

[Michael Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple book. Meaning, it explains the basic differences in Mass production and lean production through a story. By no means will you read this and become an expert. But I imagine it would be a good tool to show that there are other ways to manufacture than the 'traditional way' of mass production.

[scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

the first book i read as an employee of emerson.

this work is a slightly gauche presentation of traditional american manufacturing practices framed in opposition to the emergent japanese / lean / toyota manufacturing practices. miller uses the character ralph to communicate lean philosophy in a calm, collected, self-assured way who contrasts the character, sandy, who is portrayed as an engineer committed to the existing system but who is quickly loosing faith in his old ways. this book properly introduced a good number of core lean concepts to me which i will outline:

cellular manufacturing - setting up work center to have total capability to make a product as opposed to having similar equipment or or capability.

nagara - "smooth production flow", ideally one piece at a time, synchronization of production processes.

kaizen - "continual improvement", every process should be continually evaluated and improved in terms of time required, resources used, resultant quality, and other relevant aspects

poka-yoke - preventing mistakes by designing process that literally cannot be performed incorrectly, wrong attempt often triggers warning signal.

just-in-time - calls for any item needed at an operation to be produced and available precisely when needed, not earlier or later.

total quality management - company wide and process wide emphasis on quality

jidoka - machinery automatically inspects each item after producing it. practice of making no more of an affected item until the root cause of a defect has been identified and resolved.

ardon - system of flashing lights used to indicate production status in a work center.

kanban - system to control production and movement of parts only as required by downstream operations.

[Alex Meecham · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very useful book for anyone who works in and around manufacturing to understand some of the basics. Also a fantastic refresher for those who need it. A very easy and compact read too so it doesn’t consume too much time, definitely the type of book that you can revisit - even for portions of it.

[Justin Scharfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

Great for anyone in or wanting to be I the field of manufacturing. Really gets you thinking on how to make things work smoothly.

[Mike Thelen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great little, short and quick read. Written more like a short story, it's engaging and entertaining, all while teaching basic concepts of Lean.

[Darci Isherwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for a work assignment. It was very easy, very fast read. If you want to learn about the beginnings of Lean Manufacturing, give it a shot.

[Tyler Rasmussen · Rating 3 out of 5]

good / short / simplistic

[Arjun K B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy read and a nice story. Overly simplistic book - not necessarily a bad thing. You'll understand what happens at a badly run facility and why. If you're looking for how to improve, you're not given much to go with.

[Lauren Hall-Stigerts · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short, easy, and relatively entertaining read that introduces you to the critical differences between Eastern and Western manufacturing production philosophies. (And the contrast is quite stark - a lot of it due to the cultural differences between Japan and America that aren't about to change anytime soon.)

Lots of people pooh-poohed this book because they were forced to read it in an educational setting. Take their reviews with a grain of salt. This is a worthwhile book for anyone wanting to understand efficient production models - or just to get back to basics.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great intro to some of the basic concepts of Continuous Process Improvement. It gives you the most important terms found in Lean Manufacturing. Highly recommended for someone about to head to a Green Belt or Black Belt class. The book takes about 35 minutes to read and has a nice fun little story.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first time I tried to read this a few years ago (because my husband really liked it), I could get into it. But for some reason I found it really interesting now. I especially liked the pithy sayings like "A fool and his inventory are not easily parted." It's interesting for me to think about how the manufacturing principles might also apply to running a library or a home.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Read for my job.) Super easy read. Did not expect it to be a first-person narrative, which helped my fiction-loving attention span. The eponymous Joe was a real asshole. Five stars because it was informative, concise, and had insightful little quotes - not necessarily because I'm super into the subject matter.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick read that makes you think about the way we do things in the construction and manufacturing industry.

This books uses building shelves in a garage to illustrate how much waste there is in the typical manufacturing or construction process.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to read this for my supply and logistics class to learn the concept of lean manufacturing or J-I-T. The authors teach this concept by telling a story of how a shelving unit is installed in a private garage.

[Bill Hackenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. The good news: was already familiar with 95% of it. But, this book puts it together nicely, very easy to understand, and engaging too!

I thought this was really more of a project than a production run. But, the manufacturing points and concepts are made effectively.

[Jeremiah · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was an ok book when it comes to learning new things about lean manufacturing but the overall story was dull and uneventful. ralph didnt do anything but nag and it was kind of hard to keep up with what was going on because it was going to fast. but i would say i learned a lot from this book.

[Lance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short book on manufacturing processes using a short story about building shelves in a garage.

[Nannette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is so sadly true, and very entertaining, great insights.

[Rochelle Sharbutt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read this for an old job. It has some good points, but considering I am a J.K. Rowling/Cassandra Clare/Suzanne Collins kind of girl, this book made me want to claw my eyes out.

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

หนังสือการจัดการการผลิตแบบญี่ปุ่น
ที่เนื้อหา สั้น กระชับ เข้าใจง่าย
(แอบกระทบระบบการผลิตแบบอเมริกันนิดหน่อย)

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

about lean

[Brent Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Discusses lean manufacturing techniques in a candid conversation between two acquaintances while working on building garage shelving. Good introduction to basic principles, a quick read.

[David Carraway]

A book I read for getting my Greenbelt certification at work. Thankfully it was a very short book.