I wish I would have read this book before I started studying any of the Lean/Six Sigma literature or even the Theory of Constraints for that matter. This book does an outstanding job of explaining the concepts Toyota developed through the years that heavily influenced the Lean/Six Sigma literature. I found myself reading the book to see how Toyota could have faltered as they have of late, but what I found instead was good proof of why Toyota will recover from this. Toyota has always been known for encouraging its workers to stop a line or an entire factory to avoid up stream errors. This was echoed in a recent news article stating how Toyota had stopped new car production to get a grasp on how to fix this issue and move forward to reclaim their reputation for quality. In my opinion, this book is a must read for anyone in the Manufacturing industry or business in general.