The Lean Toolbox Sixth Edition: A Sourcebook for Process Improvement

This is the 6^th edition of a book that has become a standard reference to Lean principles, systems, and tools. It is used by Lean practitioners and Industrial Engineers in the UK, USA, Ireland, Scandinavia, South Africa, and Australia. Like earlier editions, the book is written in plain language, with minimal padding, especially for busy practitioners and managers at all levels.

Previous editions have sold over 130,000 copies, and adapted versions have been translated into Danish, Chinese and German. Across its editions, the Lean Toolbox has been prescribed reading at several UK, US, Irish and South African universities, and has featured as a standard reference for the APICS / ASCM professional CPIM examination.

This edition marks once again a significant update. New sections now cover digital tools and how these can support lean transformations, how to respond to complexity and uncertainty in the world firms operate in, and the importance of psychological safety in making sustainable improvements. Significant further revisions reflect advances in scheduling, demand management, problem solving, layout, and in many fundamental topics.

Apart from updates in many sections, this new (Sixth) edition has new (or substantially revised) sections on Digital Lean, Process mining, Bottlenecks and floating bottlenecks, Demand management and demand categories, A Scheduling framework, Psychological safety, Environmental sustainability, The Job Characteristics Model, A TPM Maintenance framework, Scrum and Agile, Seru Cells, OODA vs PDSA, and Engagement

John Bicheno is a professional engineer who has been learning about Lean since 1982 when he had links with Toyota South Africa. For 12 years he was Director of the first dedicated Master's degree in Lean in the world at Lean Enterprise Research Centre, Cardiff University, and is now Emeritus Professor of Lean Enterprise at Buckingham University. He is CPIM-F certified by APICS.

Matthias Holweg is the American Standard Companies Professor of Operations Management at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Originally trained as an industrial engineer, he has done extensive research into the adoption of Lean in the automotive industry. His recent work investigates the use of digital tools such as artificial intelligence and additive manufacturing in support of process improvements in manufacturing and service settings.