Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The unforgettable canines gathered here include Kipling’s heroically faithful ‘Garm’, Bret Harte’s irrepressible scoundrel of a ‘yaller dog’ and the aggressively affectionate three-legged pit bull who lives in a block of flats for dogs in Jonathan Lethem’s ‘Ava’s Apartment’. Here are stories which touchingly illuminate the dog’s role in the emotional lives of humans, such as Tobias Wolff’s ‘Her Dog’, where a widower shares his grief for his wife with her grieving pet. Here, too, are humorous glimpses of the canine point of view, from O. Henry’s tale of a dissatisfied lapdog’s escape to P. G. Wodehouse’s cheerfully naïve watchdog who simply wants everybody to get along. These writers and others – Ray Bradbury, JamesThurber and Penelope Lively among them – offer imaginative, lyrical and empathetic portraits of man and woman’s most devoted companion

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface (p. vii)
• Chapter 1. Faster, Higher, Stronger (p. 1)
• Chapter 2. Line Operators and Operating Data (p. 17)
• Chapter 3. Staff as Supporting Actors (p. 39)
• Chapter 4. Overstated Role of Capital (Automation in Slow Motion) (p. 56)
• Chapter 5. Economy of Multiples (p. 77)
• Chapter 6. Responsibility Centers (p. 101)
• Chapter 7. Quality: Zeroing In (p. 123)
• Chapter 8. Design Leverage (p. 144)
• Chapter 9. Partners in Profit: Suppliers, Carriers, Customers (p. 155)
• Chapter 10. Simple Models, Simple Systems (p. 172)
• Chapter 11. Managing the Transformation (p. 189)
• Chapter 12. Training: The Catalyst (p. 207)
• Chapter 13. Strategy Revealed (p. 216)
• Appendix. Honor Roll: The 5-10-20s (p. 229)
• Notes (p. 237)
• Index (p. 243)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Kirkus Book Review

Down-to-earth guidance on the possibility of achieving order-of-magnitude improvement in production operations of almost any kind, from an authority who knows his way around a factory floor. Disarmingly, consultant Schonberger concedes that world-class manufacturing (WCM) sounds like hype. The term does, however, capture the depth and breadth of fundamental changes taking place at many large industrial enterprises seeking to remain competitive in global markets. WCM has mainly to do with cutting lead times at every step of the production process to irreducible minimums and maximizing flexibility while making zero-defect quality control an integral part of the overall program. There are few if any tricks of the trade; the system demands a significant top-to-bottom organizational commitment. Schonberger, though, urges caution in introducing WCM. To illustrate, massive investments should not be made in, say, automated assembly equipment unless or until experience shows it can be used to good advantage. Nor does the author hold any brief for advanced procedures like computer modeling that won't provide a commensurate payoff. Too, he advises adding new capacity on an incremental basis with carefully planned fallback positions in case demand does not reach anticipated levels. His general role: ""Buy for performance, not for volume."" The text offers equally realistic ideas on plant layouts, which Schonberger observes might be made more productive or adapted to new uses merely by putting casters on parts bins. In like vein, while he applauds the notion of making quality everyone's job, he points out that designers can make the biggest difference, e.g., by scaling down component counts or emphasizing modularity. Nuts-and-bolts counsel from a pro. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Richard J. Schonberger, author of Japanese Manufacturing Techniques (also from the Free Press), is a world-renowned authority on production and manufacturing. President of the consulting firm of Schonberger and Associates, Inc., in Seattle, Washington, he was formerly George Cook Professor of Management at the University of Nebraska.