The Gold Mine: A Novel of Lean Turnaround Paperback – January 1, 2005

Loved the book, and the story.Less curses would do the other good. On the e-book I found a few typos. Doesn't detract from the story though. This author does a great job of explaining the systems. I don't quite understand lean systems but I get principles. That's probably because this system was recorded by a psychologist and not a lean expert. So it's definitely not boring! It's just not complete.I hoped the romance actually turned into something by the end of the book.

Much like The Lean Manager, The Gold Mine is an exceptional resource for learning about lean principles and how they apply in the workplace. This book takes all the theory of lean and shows you how it applies to real-world problems. The conversational tone of this book made for an easy read. Would recommend.

The first of three, where the authors take you through the human side of turning a company into a lean company. Nothing is spared, the doubts, the harshness and the attempts to just work it out. What's more important, the book doesn't focus on how to use the lean tools, but on the why.For those who are interested in lean or change management, this is a gem.Even if you're only mildly interested in lean (or maybe not at all), but love to read business novels, chance is you really love it. The writing style is easy going and very entertaining. I just wish more study books were written like this, it would make study a lot more fun.

I’ve read several books and studied lean, Toyota, and other related operations research topics at length. I found The Gold Mine to be the least “boring” of them all, and a great end-to-end introduction to lean topics as well as a fun refresher for those about to take on a lean role.

I like the book and has several key concepts that you should us immediately. It helps to clarify several concepts even though is not an in depth treaty

Having been away from the Japanese method of Quality for 20 years with TQM, The Gold Mine was a fine intro into Lean. I tried 2 other books on Lean, but couldn't make it all the way through. Too dry. This is readable and the characters are similar to people I'm working with, folks struggling with Lean. This is a fine review or start of the unfolding Japanese Quality saga.

I read this and the Lean Manager over the course of the last week and a half. I read them in order with Gold Mine coming first as it was written first...For those of you shopping, I would actually read them in the opposite order if I could choose to be able to go through the experience again. These are both great books, but the Lean Manager seems to be more accessible for the reader who isn't coming from a real solid operations or manufacturing background. Once engaged by the idea of Lean, though, the Gold Mine becomes a wonderful thought experiment to get inside of how a factory might navigate the transformation. These books are right up there with "The Goal"...I come from a different industry, but found both of these books hugely inspiring. Each offered me insights and propelled me along some very interesting decisions. I suspect that I will be returning to them from time to time to trigger some of these key lean concepts back to the surface of my mind.

I've been working in manufacturing for the past 20 years or so. I understand Mr. Woods with regards to frustrations with corporate politics and management decisions. I love the fact that he says that business is about producing people first and manufacturing success will follow. I've taken notes throughout the book and put it on my dry erase board at work so that it would be 'water cooler' talk. In the "ISO" quality age, the art of "Go and See" in the field has been replaced with "Document til you cry while chained at the desk". This is a great book and I'm starting to read the sequel: The Lean Manager: A Novel of Lean Transformation. There is another good book that hit on some of the same organizational points plus utilize some ancient wisdom that is still relevant today Ultimate Organizational Leadership: 225 Tips from Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Alexander the Great.