Book Reviews

World Class Manufacturing

By Richard J. Schonberger

Reviewed by Steve Buchwald, CIRM

At a LAPICS Chapter Professional Development meeting, the speaker discussed "Virtuality", or the concept of the virtual enterprise. During that session, someone in the audience asked, I believe as a response to the direction of the presentation, if the speaker could define "World Class Manufacturing" not as the text books describe it but in a real world concept that everyone could understand. The speaker didn't attempt to answer the question at that time but referred the attendee to read Richard Schonberger, who she referred to as the father of world class manufacturing. To answer that attendees question I did read World Class Manufacturing, and my review follows.

The first thing I would like to do in this review then is to try and answer the question. I will then give a detailed review of the book. World class manufacturing, in my estimation, is nothing more than the application of simple common sense techniques (lessons if you would like to use Schonberger's term) to the total enterprise so the enterprise can be "the best that it can be." To me "being the best that it can be" means delivering what your customer wants when he wants it, without incurring (and passing on to the customer) any expense not adding value to that thing the customer wants.

Let me give you an example. If a new order entry system will enable you to reduce cycle time in an environment where the customer wants better quality and is currently more than satisfied with your delivery time have you really taken a step toward world class manufacturing? In my estimation the answer is no! I'm not sure if this feeble attempt at answering the question will suffice for most readers so please give me your feedback and we can discuss it further at an upcoming chapter meeting.

Now for the review of the book. Schonberger's book is a good book dealing with the success of nearly 100 American corporations. It is extremely broad in scope as it deals with products from computers to pasta and with departments from engineering and accounting to marketing. The underlying tome of the book is: get to know the customer, simplify the manufacturing process, simplify the manufacturing environment, educate the employees, and get everyone involved and do this using quick, cheap, and simple solutions first and only turn to automation much later in the process if at all. According to Schonberger, world class manufacturing fosters the notion of total management. He states this very well as: WCM does not employ bottom-up or top-down management. It employs blended management." WCM management is not merely arranging resources in order to produce goods and services. It is marshaling resources for continual and rapid improvement."

The only caution I have about the book is the amount of time dedicated to JIT. I believe very strongly that the JIT philosophy of simplicity and speed is important for world class manufacturing. However, there are other important programs that need to be a part of WCM and even though Schonberger mentions these I came away with the feeling that one could read this book and believe that WCM and JIT are synonymous. Given the correct environment they well may be, but also given the breadth of the book those in an environment where they are not synonymous may go astray. I'm sure that Schonberger didn't intend this to occur and that is why the first point in his 17 point action agenda for manufacturing excellence, found in chapter 13, Strategy Revealed, is get to know the customer.

In spite of the caution I would highly recommend this book for everyone. The success stories alone are great reading but this book contains a lot more.

Good reading!