Top 10 Lean Six Sigma Books

This Top 10 list has been inspired by Joel at the Kaizone, a  content portal for lean books, blog posts and some fantastic resources. To take a look at his full list of the top 100 lean & OpEx blogs, click here.

For a selection of case studies, White Papers, reports, presentations & more, why not take a look at our original BTOES Insights content, or our excellent premium contributor content? Or for some wider reading, take a look at the Top 10 Operational Excellence Books.

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What is Lean?

The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook: A Quick Reference Guide to Nearly 100 Tools for Improving Quality and Speed

Michael L. George, David Rowlands, Mark Price, John Maxey
Level: Essential Reading

"The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook is today's most complete and results-based reference to the tools and concepts needed to understand, implement, and leverage Lean Six Sigma."

Lean Six Sigma For Dummies

Wiley
Level: Introductory

"The jargon–crowded language and theory of Lean Six Sigma can be intimidating for both beginners and experienced users. Written in plain English and packed with lots of helpful examples, this easy–to–follow guide arms you with tools and techniques for implementing Lean Six Sigma and offers guidance on everything from policy deployment to managing change in your organisation―and everything in between."

The Six Sigma Way: How to Maximize the Impact of Your Change and Improvement Efforts

Peter Pande, Robert Neuman, Roland Cavanagh
Level: Introductory

Ranked in TIME's Top 25 Most Influential Management Books of All Time, The Six Sigma Way was among the very first books to clearly explain the impressive benefits of Six Sigma’s improvement-driven and customer-centric approach to business leaders and managers.

The Machine That Changed the World

James P. Womack, Daniel T. Joners & Daniel Roos
Level: Moderate Experience

"The book that coined the term “Lean” based on the outcomes of more than 5 years of study of the Japanese automobile industry by MIT.  Womack, Jones and Roos thoroughly document the whole of the Toyota Production System, pinpoint the advantages of Lean manufacturing over the prevailing mass-production system used in the western world at the time, and correctly predicted the rise of Lean manufacturing principles, not just in automobile manufacturing, but in any value-creating endeavor."

Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production

Taiichi Ono
Level: Moderate Experience

"Combining his candid insights with a rigorous analysis of Toyota's attempts at Lean production, Ohno's book explains how Lean principles can improve any production endeavor. A historical and philosophical description of just-in-time and Lean manufacturing, this work is a must read for all students of human progress. On a more practical level, it continues to provide inspiration and instruction for those seeking to improve efficiency through the elimination of waste."

The High-Velocity Edge: How Market Leaders Leverage Operational Excellence to Beat the Competition

Steven J. Spear
Level: Moderate Experience

"While this book is tailored to business leaders, it should be read by high school seniors, college students, and those already in the workforce. With the broad societal application of these ideas, we can achieve levels of accomplishment not even imagined by most people."

The Toyota Way

Jeffrey Liker
Level: Moderate Experience

 "In The Toyota Way, Dr. Liker shifted the focus away from superficial tools and techniques of the production system and onto the 14 key principles that define the Toyota style of management.  In doing so, the book was the first to articulate the true source of Toyota’s success in a format available and understandable to the masses."

A Revolution in Manufacturing: The SMED System: Single-minute Exchange of Die System

Shigeo Shingo
Level: Expert

Written by the industrial engineer who developed SMED (single-minute exchange of die) for Toyota, A Revolution in Manufacturing provides a full overview of this powerful just in timeproduction tool. It offers the most complete and detailed instructions available anywhere for transforming a manufacturing environment in ways that will speed up production and make small lot inventories feasible.

The Lean Turnaround: How Business Leaders Use Lean Principles to Create Value and Transform Their Company

"With 30 years of accumulated experience, Art Byrne is one of the rare few people who can speak with authority about the pitfalls of fi nancial measurement systems, the importance of respect for people, the power of Lean in the marketplace, and the leverage from organizing people around value streams. When he writes 'Go to the Gemba and Run Your Kaizen,' we must take heed."

Toyota Kata

Mike Rother
Level: Expert

"Of all the texts on Lean and continuous improvement, Toyota Kata achieves what no other book before it has fully accomplished: translating Lean into a set of simple, practical routines, organized around improvement and coaching, that can be readily and effectively practiced at all levels of an organization."