Ready, Set, Dominate: Implement Toyota's Set-Based Learning for Developing Products and Nobody Can Catch You

by Michael N. Kennedy, Kent Harmon

In 2003 Product Development for the Lean Enterprise by Michael Kennedy was published and promptly turned product development in major corporations on its head. Now, five years later, comes a continuation of that book, including case histories that identify the pitfalls and lessons learned in implementing the Toyota product development system. The authors also show how Toyota's set-based learning system can be adapted and adopted by all areas of a business in order to produce major advantages over the competition. Whether a group of engineers is developing new cars, software applications, aerospace equipment, kitchen appliances, controls, sensors, or any of hundreds of different items, the process they follow is pretty much the same, except in one company -- Toyota, perhaps the most innovative and highly respected car company on the planet. Companies that are early adopters of the Toyota system are certain to realize tremendous advantages over their competitors. This is a change that is coming to businesses everywhere and this book shows the way. It is a must-read for anyone in management.

Genres: Business

296 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2008

Reviews

[S C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm giving this book five stars for two reasons.

First, I'm a huge fan of the theory behind the techniques suggested by this book. The theory is a well-thought-out long-term sustainable approach to product development.

Second, while the 'fictional story' in Part 1 of this book has non-believable character interactions, those interactions concisely both demonstrate how powerful the system can be and reveals answers to many questions - questions I thought to myself as I was trying to understand all the dynamics of the system, and questions I'm sure many other readers would have. So the fictional story is not a five star story. It's not even a good story. But it serves a five star purpose.

The last thing to note is that the system proposed in this book is not necessarily easy to implement. It requires a custom implementation depending on the size of the company and product development cycle, and most of this is a result of efficiently accessing knowledge, but I think this book is a worthy read for ANY engineer.

[Matthew Laberge · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't really have anything productive to say about this book, I think my rating says it all.