ON
TH E WO RL D
DANIEL T. JONES
&
DANIEL ROOS
BY
SAURAV
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James P. Womack , Daniel T. Jones & Daniel Roos have beautifully engineered the book
named as “The Machine That Changed The World” .The authors were the three senior
managers at International Motor Vehicle program (IMVP) at MIT.
Daniel Roos, Ph.D was director of the International motor vehicle program at MIT ,James
P Womack, Ph.D was research director of program, Daniel T Jones was the program’s
European research director .
Other book written by these authors is “The Future Of Automobiles”, in which they
examined the problem facing the world motor vehicle industry at that time.
The autos were driven by the success of Japanese automobile industry in revolutionizing
the production of automobiles. The changing scenario of production of automobiles and
perception of people to the lean production were the key factors which prompted the
authors to come up with the book titled “The Machine That Changed The World”.
SUMMARY
The machine that changed the world, written by James P. Womack , Daniel T. Jones and
Daniel Roos is a work of research by them in the field of automobile industry . Their
research was sponsored by the International Motor Vehicle Program (IMVP).
This book is an attempt to highlight the revolutionizing technique of automobile
production by Japanese referred to as lean production. A researcher at IMVP named John
krafcik coined the term lean production. Before understanding lean production, we will
have to be aware with the craft production and mass production.
The book compares the working and management strategy of different automobile
companies, their evolution, their disappearance etc. the book gives at the start of few of
few chapters gives a detailed account of different automobile companies such as P&L,
Ford, G.M, Toyota, and during the coming decades changes in their production
techniques and even management strategy.
Some great personalities like Henry ford, Alfred sloan, ohno, Eiji toyoda to name among
a few who left a remarkable mark in history to revolutionize these techniques. This was
achieved by the authors, based on a five-year study of the worldwide automobile industry
that included visits to 90 assembly plants in 17 countries. Their research indicates that the
answer lies instead in the type of production system used, regardless of country or
product. The authors identify three types of production systems: craft, mass production,
and lean production. Lean production, the focus of the book, is the most efficient of the
three and was begun in Japan. The authors discuss the rise of lean production, the new
approach to manufacturing that has shaken the mass production system to its very bases.
The authors trace back the history of automobile industry, with P&L. P&L was situated in
Paris in 1890s was the leading company, and Evelyn Ellis a wealthy member of English
parliament became the first person to drive an automobile in England in june 1895. But,
P&L was not able to survive and now it can only be seen in the museums.
Ford’s moving assembly line was revolutionary in automobile industry. It helped wider
mass of population to have the reach of the automobiles and was effective in minimizing
the costs and was having designed-in repair ability, Ford assumed that his buyer would be
a farmer with modest tool kit and the kinds of mechanical skills needed for fixing the
farm machinery. As every car had a manual for self guiding repairing tool. By the
introduction of revolutionary assembly line Ford reached peak production volume of
2million identical vehicles a year in early 1920s, he had cut the cost to the consumer by
an additional two-thirds.
This served as a division or separation of labor, the assembler required only a few
minutes of training. Moreover, he was relentlessly disciplined by the pace of line.
A 1915 survey revealed that Highland workers spoke more than fifty languages an that
many of them could barely speak English.
Ford’s original mass-production, the model-T produced 2.1 million models in 1923, the
peak year of model-T production.
GM was founded by William Durant, but he was not managing it well .So, Alfred Sloan
was called in .
Sloan’s strategy was the tool of decentralization.
Sloan wanted to advice standardization and model diversity and achieved both goals by
many mechanical items, across the company’s entire product range.
This situation of stagnant mass production in both the united state & Europe might have
continued indefinitely if a new motor industry had not emerged in Japan. The true
significance of this industry was that it was not simple another replication of the by now
venerable American approach to mass production.
KEY LEARNING
The book teaches many concepts embedded in its excellent research of automobile
industry .One of them being that change and shift to new techniques or to the market
needs is necessary for development and evolution .The book also highlights the need for
problem solving as soon as it appears and not keeping it for the last stage to be rectified .
It doesn’t only saves money but also the precious time, a unique and beautiful concept
developed by the lean producers.
Company customer relationship can be intimate and rewarding. This is shown by the
Japanese automobile makers, where it is said that in Japan the only way to escape the
sales agent from whom you once bought a car is to leave the country.