Fundamentals of Lean Manufacturing

Authors: Don T. Phillips; Berna E. Tokgoz ISBN 978-1-951985-71-4 (casebound) 276 pages Modern Manufacturing Methodologies have undergone three different evolutionary stages over the past 200 years. Before there were modern manufacturing plants, the world only knew skilled craftsmen who labored as individuals in very small groups to produce goods and services. The first factory evolution came about when James Watt invented the steam engine. Metal cutting, forming and assembly machines were co-located near streams or rivers forming what we now call the Job Shop or the American Armory System. The second factory evolution began when Henry Ford introduced the first modern assembly line using interchangeable parts and standardized manufacturing procedures. This gave rise to the modern flow shop, which reached its zenith during WW II. In the late 1970's, the third industrial evolution began when Taiichi Ohno and the Toyota Motor Company introduced what we now call Lean Manufacturing...and the