Andy & Me Crisis and Transformation on the Lean Journey

2006 SHINGO PRIZE for EXCELLENCE in MANUFACTURING RESEARCH Based on the author's personal experience with Toyota’s master teachers and with companies in the midst of great change, Andy & Me is a business novel set in a failing New Jersey auto plant focusing on the tribulations of Tom Pappas, the plant manager. The situations, characters and plant politics will 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 Toyota Production System (TPS). On this journey, the reader learns that TPS is more than just a collection of tools; it entails a new way of thinking and behaving. Though Tom finds success — both in his plant and in his personal life — he learns from Andy that successful improvement is "endless and eternal."