Press Releases

MARCH 2006

For Immediate Release

FOUR PRODUCTIVITY PRESS BOOKS WIN PRESTIGIOUS SHINGO PRIZE

New York… Productivity Press, the premier source of authoritative information on organizational improvement, has received the 2006 Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing Research for four of its books: Creating a Lean Culture -- Tools to Sustain Lean Conversions, by David Mann; Training Within Industry - - The Foundation of Lean, by Donald A. Dinero; Andy & Me -- Crisis and Transformation on the Lean Journey, by Pascal Dennis, and Lean Production Simplified -- A Plain-Language Guide to the World's Most Powerful Production System, also by Pascal Dennis. The awards were presented at the 18th Annual Shingo Prize Conference & Awards Ceremony at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center, Covington Kentucky, on April 6th, 2006.

Dubbed the "Nobel Prize" of manufacturing by Business Week magazine, the Shingo Research Prize recognizes researchers throughout the world who promote new knowledge and understanding of manufacturing and business improvement methods, systems and processes. Research awards are given in four categories: Unpublished papers, Published articles, Books (monographs) and Applied publications/multimedia programs.

Creating a Lean Culture
David Mann's groundbreaking book provides leaders with a lean management system that standard books on lean either don't cover or only hint at. It provides the detailed, practical guidelines necessary for implementing and sustaining the elements of lean management by laying out its components, how they work together and how to implement these new practices. Lean culture is cultivated as a result of the totality of these changes.

Training Within Industry
Remarkably, the crucial link between mass production to Lean is not a Japanese invention. Rather, Training Within Industry (TWI), originally developed by the United States during World War II to help train millions of people at their worksites to quickly increase production, was later exported overseas. This book explores the history and application of the four modules that compose TWI, arguably the most underrated achievement of 20th century U.S. Industry: Job Instruction, Job Methods, Job Relations and Program Development. Ultimately, this system drives a culture change from mass production to Lean Flow while standardizing training processes and assisting front line supervisors in teaching new operations to workers quickly and effectively.

Andy & Me
This unique business novel by Pascal Dennis is based on the author's personal experience with Toyota senseis and with companies in the midst of great change. It presents the realities of TPS implementation through the story of Tom Pappas, a plant manager in a failing New Jersey auto plant with situations, characters and plant "politics" that ring true with many readers. In a cool, readable style, Andy & Me follows Tom's relationship with Andy Saito, a reclusive, retired Toyota guru whom Tom persuades to help save his plant through the "teaching" of the legendary TPS. On this journey, the reader is also engaged by the story of Tom's personal life.

Lean Production Simplified
This book covers each of the components of lean within the context of the entire lean production system. Dennis helps the reader grasp the system as a whole and the factors that animate it by organizing the book around an image of a "house of lean production", and his straightforward, common sense approach makes this book an easily accessible "on the floor" resource for every operator.

About the Shingo Prize
The Prize was established in 1988 to promote awareness of Lean manufacturing concepts and recognize companies in the United States, Canada and Mexico that achieve world-class manufacturing status. The Shingo Prize philosophy is that world-class business performance may be achieved through focused improvements in core manufacturing and business processes. The Shingo Prize recognizes organizations and research consistent with its mission and model with two types of prizes: Business, which promotes use of world-class manufacturing strategies and practices to achieve world-class results, and Research, which promotes research and writing regarding new knowledge and understanding of manufacturing processes.

For more information on Creating a Lean Culture, Training Within Industry, Andy & Me, Lean Production Simplified, or any of Productivity Press' other titles, call 1 (888) 319-5852 or access our online catalog at www.productivitypress.com.