Author Michel Baudin takes us one further step toward the customer with this book, the follow-up to his Lean Assembly. Logistics, says Baudin, is composed "of all the operations needed to deliver goods or services, except making the goods or performing the services." In other words, if you are transforming materials, you are in production, not logistics.
According to the author, the book "fills a gap between books on lean manufacturing that provide overviews of logistics among other topics and books on logistics that ignore or underrate the lean approach."
Lean logistics, when done right, has the capability of reducing production lead times from weeks to hours. To its credit, the book details not only how to create leaner manufacturing but also the negative consequences of doing so, such as less flexibility in using common parts and the possibility of logistics complications.
Topics include warehousing, inbound and outbound logistics, the advantages of milk runs, consolidation centers, returnable containers, pull systems, operating policies, product sequencing, and master scheduling.
In addition to the basics, current trends such as third-party logistics and vendor relationships are evaluated. The final chapter is a case study on the Toyota system.
The book is meaty but accessible, with plenty of helpful diagrams, charts, and photos.
Michel Baudin is a business consultant and author. —Sean Silverthorne