The Best Manufacturing Books for Beginners to Consider Reading

The editors at Solutions Review have compiled the best manufacturing books worth reading based on their overall relevance, ratings, publish date, and ability to add value to a business. Solutions Review participates in affiliate programs and may make a small commission from products purchased through this resource.

There are plenty of valuable resources that manufacturing companies can use to improve and maintain their employees’ skills and industry expertise. However, if you’re looking for something to help a newcomer get started or want something for your team to do together, there are few options better than a good book. To help you find the right title to utilize as an educational resource, our editors have researched some of the best manufacturing books on shelves and spotlighted some of them below.

Every title listed below has at least four stars on Amazon and comes from various leaders, educators, and industry professionals in the manufacturing sector. The list is organized alphabetically by title.

The Best Manufacturing Books Worth Reading

Faster, Better, Cheaper in the History of Manufacturing

OUR TAKE: If you (or someone on your team) are looking to orient themselves in the broader manufacturing world, give this title a try. It covers machinery and social impacts and tracks the progress of the manufacturing industry.

Description: This book covers the historical development of manufacturing, the technical aspects involved in that development (including mechanization, materials, interchangeable parts, automation, etc.), and the organizational innovations that have influenced the manufacturing industry, including visions of labor, Fordism, and Lean. While the book doesn’t prioritize modern manufacturing software and systems, the 2016 title from Christoph Roser can act as a thorough gateway into the manufacturing industry. The book is over four hundred pages in length and can also be read and appreciated by anyone interested in a manufacturing career.

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Fundamentals of Modern Manufacturing: Materials, Processes and Systems, Seventh Edition

OUR TAKE: This 800 hundred page textbook is one of the most comprehensive gateways into modern manufacturing you’re likely to find. Writer Mikell P. Groover will guide you through traditional and recent industry principles and best practices, materials, and procedures.

Description: The 7th edition of this book, released in 2020, will provide junior and senior-level students with an up-to-date exploration of the building blocks involved in modern manufacturing sciences. Topics covered include everything from traditional manufacturing processes to contemporary electronics-based technologies and more. Mikell P. Groover uses mathematical models, equations, tables, illustrations, graphs, and practice problems to help his readers understand the core tenets of manufacturing materials, processes, quality control issues, emerging technologies, and more.

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How To Implement Lean Manufacturing

OUR TAKE: Lonnie Wilson’s book will walk you through the step-by-step process of implementing Lean techniques and introduce you to the engineering and production aspects involved in that process.

Description: The second edition of Lonnie Wilson’s book explains how to implement the Lean formula and use it to eliminate waste, control quality, manage inventory, and improve the overall performance of an enterprise environment. Readers of the book can expect to learn about deploying enterprise-wide strategies, process gains, reducing variations in a manufacturing system, performing system-wide value-stream evaluations, reducing bottlenecks, implementing cellular manufacturing, and more. The 2016-updated version introduces new material about Lean leadership, managing a business culture, and avoiding pitfalls and implementation errors.

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Make It Right: 5 Steps to Align Your Manufacturing Business from the Frontline to the Bottom Line

OUR TAKE: If you’re a manufacturing leader looking to streamline your business, this book can help. You can expect to learn about some simple but proven best practices for optimizing a manufacturing division with a step-by-step alignment process.

Description: Leading a manufacturing company can be complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. Writer Kevin Snook takes his thirty years of experience managing manufacturing companies and advising CEOs and converts it into a step-by-step process so leaders and managers can implement meaningful change in their businesses. Throughout the book, Snook will help his readers utilize the tools and strategies they need to align their manufacturing organization from the frontline to the bottom line and achieve sustainable growth in the era of Industry 4.0.

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Organizational Quality Management: TQM deployment perspectives from manufacturing & process industry

OUR TAKE: Total Quality Management is a crucial practice for manufacturers to follow. This book—part of a broader series—will help you learn how the TQM methodology can improve your company’s manufacturing processes.

Description: This compact, approachable book is tailored to people and organizations looking to adopt, promote, and practice the core methodologies involved in Total Quality Management (TQM). Topics covered include Daily Work Management, Policy Management, Continuous Improvement, and the different tools and practices used by TQM practitioners across industries to reduce waste. Writer Pankaj Lochan, who has twenty years of industry experience, presents Total Quality Management from a deployment-ease perspective and illustrates its core concepts and principles with simplified illustrations and explanations.

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The Toyota Way, Second Edition: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer

OUR TAKE: This bestselling book has over 200 reviews on Amazon, an average score of 4.8 stars, and is an excellent read for active and aspiring manufacturers looking to understand how Toyota’s manufacturing processes have changed the industry.

Description: Written by Jeffrey K. Liker—a professor and award-winning author—this bestselling guide to Toyota’s renowned production system and philosophy has been updated with new, modern frameworks for pushing innovation and quality in a business. The book will introduce readers to Toyota’s processes and help companies of all sizes learn how to develop a similarly successful program unique to their conditions. The second edition includes updates like revised data sets, new information on Toyota’s approach to their competition, illustrative examples from organizations that have learned from the “Toyota Way,” new leadership models, and more.

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The 12 Principles of Manufacturing Excellence: A Lean Leader’s Guide to Achieving and Sustaining Excellence

OUR TAKE: If you’re looking for a clear, detailed guide to the steps you should be taking to improve performance, this might be the book for you. You should expect to learn about sustaining manufacturing excellence and cultivating a positive culture through leadership.

Description: Larry Fast has taken his almost forty years of leadership experience in the manufacturing industry and used it to write a comprehensive guide about achieving vertical and horizontal alignment in an organization. He provides his readers with a clear pathway toward manufacturing excellence with twelve fundamental principles for tracking progress across plants and functions. This updated edition includes new figures, exhibits, and insights to help manufacturers develop strategies, improve their culture, audit processes, identify priorities for improvement, track progress, ensure sustainability, and more.

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Now Read: The Best Manufacturing Training Courses on Udemy