james-womack and daniel-jones's follow-up to the-machine-that-changed-the-world, moving from "what is lean?" to "how do you implement it?" Published by Simon & Schuster, 1996. Revised edition 2003.
Overview
The book distills TPS into five principles: (1) specify value from the customer's perspective, (2) identify the value-stream for each product family, (3) make value flow without interruption (one-piece-flow), (4) let the customer pull value (pull-production), (5) pursue perfection (kaizen).
Key Arguments
These five principles became the canonical framework for lean implementation worldwide. The genius of the framework is its simplicity — it provides a sequence (define value → map the stream → create flow → establish pull → seek perfection) that any organization can follow. Womack and Jones extended lean beyond manufacturing to include office processes, service delivery, and supply chain management.
The book uses extended case studies (Porsche, Pratt & Whitney, Lantech, Wiremold) to show lean transformation in action. Each case illustrates the same pattern: initial resistance, value stream mapping reveals enormous waste, flow improvements produce dramatic results, and the organization develops a continuous improvement capability.
Significance
The book's accessibility — clear writing, concrete case studies, actionable framework — drove lean adoption across industries far beyond automotive manufacturing. Some Toyota practitioners argue the five principles overemphasize flow and pull while underweighting jidoka, standard-work, and the respect-for-people dimension. The framework also omits stability (the foundation of the TPS "house") and heijunka (production leveling), both of which Toyota considers essential.
Womack and Jones went on to found the lean-enterprise-institute (1997) to promote lean thinking, making this book the intellectual foundation of the organized lean movement.