Lean Germinates: The U.S. Pioneer of Lean Spreads the Knowledge

(This is the third in a 12-part Series on the Origins of Lean in the U.S.)

To get the Omark revolution underway, in early 1982 we bought the first 500 copies of Shigeo Shingo’s A Study of the Toyota Production System that were imported into the U.S. Because it was the first edition, it was poorly translated from Japanese into English. However, we had no choice but to form book study teams to see if we could understand what Shingo meant.

By the way, the second edition, published in 1989, is a far better translation. If you check it out on Amazon you will find the following description of the book:

“This is the ‘green book’ that started it all — the first book in English on JIT, written from the engineer’s viewpoint. When Omark Industries bought 500 copies and studied it companywide, Omark became the American pioneer in JIT.”

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