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A Factory of One: Applying Lean Principles to Banish Waste and Improve Your Personal Performance
Most business readers have heard of the Lean principles developed for factories a set of tools and ideas that have enabled companies to dramatically boost quality by reducing waste and errors producing more while using less. Yet until now, few have recognized how relevant these powerful ideas are to individuals and their daily work. Every person at
177 pages, ebook
First published December 13, 2011
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412 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 30, 2012
"A Factory of One: Applying Lean Principles to Banish Waste and Improve Your Personal Performance" by Daniel Markovitz is an interesting and new look at an old topic, productivity improvement. I'm not sure there was much "new" here, but rather some solid concepts presented in a different manner. I liked the book, and feel is deserves a place among the productivity and business books that line the shelves.
It's just under 150 pages long, which makes it a quick read. It's well organized and flows from topic to topic, providing solid advice on improving personal performance and productivity through the use of Lean principles originally designed to help Toyota factories outperform their competition. Thus, the title, "A Factory of One."
Using this Lean Thinking model, Markovitz addresses the topics of What's Your Job; Spotting Value, Spotting Waste; Flow; Visual Management; and From Bad to Good, and From Good to Great. All of these are important.
I liked the concept of gemba, in the chapter on defining what your job is. I think it is very important to determine what you should be doing that creates value vs. the incidentals and wasteful things that sometimes occupy our time. This chapter does a good job of getting you to look at that. The chapter on spotting value and waste introduces a 5S model which is okay for looking at how you are doing things. There are many of these kinds of models and this is no better or worse than the others. The key is to actually use a system and prevent your office from looking like the picture of Al Gore's office used in the book for illustrative purposes.
The author uses 4Ds to help process work and make it flow. Again, this will work if you actually use it. I did like the part about multitasking, but again, this is not really new. A number of books these last few years have looked at how inefficient multitasking is, but the other's take on the topic is good and I hope people listen. The chapter on visual management provided some good ideas for making one's tasks easier, more streamlined. This is probably something I had not thought to use outside of places such as the garage, but I see now how the concept and idea can be expanded to other areas.
And of course there is a bit on kaizen, the Japanese term for continuous improvement. Much has been written about this, but the section in this book is well done with some of the basics.
Bottom line, "A Factory of One" is a short, direct, and good book on increasing your personal productivity through the use of Lean principles. If you need a little boost in this area, give it a read and try out the principles. You're bound to increase your personal performance.
It's just under 150 pages long, which makes it a quick read. It's well organized and flows from topic to topic, providing solid advice on improving personal performance and productivity through the use of Lean principles originally designed to help Toyota factories outperform their competition. Thus, the title, "A Factory of One."
Using this Lean Thinking model, Markovitz addresses the topics of What's Your Job; Spotting Value, Spotting Waste; Flow; Visual Management; and From Bad to Good, and From Good to Great. All of these are important.
I liked the concept of gemba, in the chapter on defining what your job is. I think it is very important to determine what you should be doing that creates value vs. the incidentals and wasteful things that sometimes occupy our time. This chapter does a good job of getting you to look at that. The chapter on spotting value and waste introduces a 5S model which is okay for looking at how you are doing things. There are many of these kinds of models and this is no better or worse than the others. The key is to actually use a system and prevent your office from looking like the picture of Al Gore's office used in the book for illustrative purposes.
The author uses 4Ds to help process work and make it flow. Again, this will work if you actually use it. I did like the part about multitasking, but again, this is not really new. A number of books these last few years have looked at how inefficient multitasking is, but the other's take on the topic is good and I hope people listen. The chapter on visual management provided some good ideas for making one's tasks easier, more streamlined. This is probably something I had not thought to use outside of places such as the garage, but I see now how the concept and idea can be expanded to other areas.
And of course there is a bit on kaizen, the Japanese term for continuous improvement. Much has been written about this, but the section in this book is well done with some of the basics.
Bottom line, "A Factory of One" is a short, direct, and good book on increasing your personal productivity through the use of Lean principles. If you need a little boost in this area, give it a read and try out the principles. You're bound to increase your personal performance.
March 15, 2016
This is a great little book on applying lean principles and the Toyota method to your personal work set-up, whether you are self-employed, work for a small business, or work for a large enterprise.
The author makes good use of humor to get his point across.
I borrowed this book from the library, not knowing how good it would be, but determined to attempt to implement the ideas as I read the book. I have needed to reorganize my office and get rid of unnecessary items in it for quite some time, but this book provided me with the necessary boot in the pants to get it done.
While I already had the idea of implementing several ideas in the book before reading about them, it was reassuring to have an unbiased push in the same direction. Because of the changes I have made, I feel like my work environment is now much more geared toward getting work done and not letting things fall through the cracks. It will take some maintenance to keep it that way, but there is no system that won't require maintenance.
The author makes good use of humor to get his point across.
I borrowed this book from the library, not knowing how good it would be, but determined to attempt to implement the ideas as I read the book. I have needed to reorganize my office and get rid of unnecessary items in it for quite some time, but this book provided me with the necessary boot in the pants to get it done.
While I already had the idea of implementing several ideas in the book before reading about them, it was reassuring to have an unbiased push in the same direction. Because of the changes I have made, I feel like my work environment is now much more geared toward getting work done and not letting things fall through the cracks. It will take some maintenance to keep it that way, but there is no system that won't require maintenance.
August 27, 2023
It's a surprisingly helpful book, though short. It's a good compendium of personal productivity. The book touches on Lean-related topics, like value stream, waste, 5S, flow, visual management, and continuous improvement. Most chapters come with a "Next Steps" section that provides a pause for reflection and a call to action to put the chapter's concepts into practice.
With so many demands and gold to chase, defining what is most important and focusing on it is much needed for a home worker like me. Not that it brings something revolutionarily new, but how it compiles, presents, and illustrates the tools and techniques that help you consciously separate the wheat from the chaff makes it a suggested read.
With so many demands and gold to chase, defining what is most important and focusing on it is much needed for a home worker like me. Not that it brings something revolutionarily new, but how it compiles, presents, and illustrates the tools and techniques that help you consciously separate the wheat from the chaff makes it a suggested read.
June 9, 2020
كتاب مهم لتنظيم الحياة بشكل عام
يتطرق الكتاب الى استخدام مهارات الجودة في الحياة العامة مثلا
5s
kaizen
lean
باريتو 20/80
تخطيط العمليات و ترتيبها
القيمة المضافة
تقليل الخسائر في الوقت و الجهد و المال و غير ذلك
الجيمبا و اهميتها
tracker
تدفق العمل
الادارة المرئية visual management
كانبان
و غير ذلك
كان ذلك ملخص لاهم الافكار التي جائت في الكتاب و يمكن لاي شخص ان يطلع عليها باسهاب داخل الكتاب او ببحث بسيط على الانترنت فاغلب المواضيع يوجد عنها الكثير من المقالات في الانترنت و هي مهمة للغاية لاي شخص يريد تحسين حياته او عمله
يتطرق الكتاب الى استخدام مهارات الجودة في الحياة العامة مثلا
5s
kaizen
lean
باريتو 20/80
تخطيط العمليات و ترتيبها
القيمة المضافة
تقليل الخسائر في الوقت و الجهد و المال و غير ذلك
الجيمبا و اهميتها
tracker
تدفق العمل
الادارة المرئية visual management
كانبان
و غير ذلك
كان ذلك ملخص لاهم الافكار التي جائت في الكتاب و يمكن لاي شخص ان يطلع عليها باسهاب داخل الكتاب او ببحث بسيط على الانترنت فاغلب المواضيع يوجد عنها الكثير من المقالات في الانترنت و هي مهمة للغاية لاي شخص يريد تحسين حياته او عمله
April 3, 2021
A good overview of techniques (4Ds, 5S, 5-why, personal Kanban, Kaizen, etc.) available to improve one's productivity. Not everything will be applicable for everyone, but you're bound to find a few that work for you.
December 10, 2021
A good book but like most self-help books there is so much repetition here. All the same this is a great book and I have used some of the principles in there to help clear out inboxes and focus more on getting good actual work completed instead of just busy work.
September 25, 2017
A great "individual Lean" book. Many simple tips and tricks for bringing Lean into your personal workspace.
December 26, 2018
Work-related
August 23, 2020
4.5 Excellent tips, especially with email management.
May 17, 2016
Over the last 6 months I have become engrossed in learning personal productivity through reading and podcasts. I looked at it as my own personal way of speeding up the value I provide, while un-cluttering my life. I wish I had read this book before I started. Factory of One covers everything that has taken me several months to unpack and it puts it into a connotation that "lean zealots" will understand and love.
The author does a great job of conveying:
1) Understand what you do that adds Value!!
2) 5s to sort straighten and clean out the garbage that prevents you from being productive/adding values
3) Create a standardized plan for tackling
4) Pull work to you
5) Make the work visual
Markovitz references several works including productivity guru David Allen and Jim Benson. Benson's work specifically on Personal Kanban has changed my life. I took many principles from David Allen's Getting Things Done method, such as unpacking everything, and I have incorporated it into Benson's personal kanban methodology.
The only criticism is that Markovitz doesn't spend a lot of time discussing personal reflection. As part of any kaizen, reflection is a time for learning. If it was mentioned, I think it may have been overshadowed by other topics.
I highly recommend, before starting a personal productivity plan, that you give Factory of One a read. It will put you on the right path.
The author does a great job of conveying:
1) Understand what you do that adds Value!!
2) 5s to sort straighten and clean out the garbage that prevents you from being productive/adding values
3) Create a standardized plan for tackling
4) Pull work to you
5) Make the work visual
Markovitz references several works including productivity guru David Allen and Jim Benson. Benson's work specifically on Personal Kanban has changed my life. I took many principles from David Allen's Getting Things Done method, such as unpacking everything, and I have incorporated it into Benson's personal kanban methodology.
The only criticism is that Markovitz doesn't spend a lot of time discussing personal reflection. As part of any kaizen, reflection is a time for learning. If it was mentioned, I think it may have been overshadowed by other topics.
I highly recommend, before starting a personal productivity plan, that you give Factory of One a read. It will put you on the right path.
May 11, 2016
A huge problem personal productivity books face is that they have very different audiences to speak to: people new to personal productivity, people well-versed in personal productivity concepts, and people who have made a fetish of personal productivity. The first group needs information. The second group thinks they need information but actually they need motivation, and the third group needs to be sent back to their craft tables.
This book does a good job of speaking to the first group, people new to personal productivity, though as usual it is pitched a little too high on the learning scale because the people in the second and third groups are the people who buy the books and pay the bills. But only a little too high. So, of the books I've read lately, this is the book I would recommend to buy for your advanced high school student, someone entering college, or someone entering the work force.
This book does a good job of speaking to the first group, people new to personal productivity, though as usual it is pitched a little too high on the learning scale because the people in the second and third groups are the people who buy the books and pay the bills. But only a little too high. So, of the books I've read lately, this is the book I would recommend to buy for your advanced high school student, someone entering college, or someone entering the work force.
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April 30, 2012Webinar available until 15 May 2012: http://blog.jackvinson.com/archives/2...
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews