There seems to be a set formula for business novels that tackle lean and/or continuous improvement:
1.)  A plant or an operation that isn't just having it's troubles but is on the verge of being shut down unless things are turned around in a short period of time,
2.) A plant manager who stands to lose his or her job is said turnaround isn't accomplished,
3.)  A bad guy, usually at "corporate" who doesn't understand what the protagonist is trying to do and maybe even throws barriers in front of it even when the protagonist can show his or her efforts are working,
4.)  A coach, counselor, guru, or (now that lean is here) sensei that guides the beleaguered manager through his or her trials, and
5.) Some extracurricular stuff (office sex, divorce, bad marriage, whatever) that is simply bolted on to the story for no apparent reason.
Andy and Me, authored by Pascal Dennis, follows the formula precisely.  It's a quick read, in part because one can easily identify and, therefore, skip the "bolted on" chapters about the lead character's messy divorce and subsequent love life that add nothing to the story and are every bit as well presented as this sort of material tends to be in any "business novel".   

Andy and Me is the story of Tom Papas trying to save an auto plant that's having lots of troubles including a weird guy who reports to him who is trying to undercut his efforts (he eventually gets fired...hey, I'm not giving away plot secrets...you pretty much figure out what's going to happen the first time you meet the weird guy.  I won't tell you if the plant shuts down or if Tom gets to spend more time with his kids in spite of his crazy ex-wife...but I'll bet you can guess.) and some hard-ass financial type at corporate who doesn't know anything about manufacturing but wants to see the numbers come out right.  Tom finds Takinori Saito, aka "Andy", to help him figure things out.  Andy worked for Toyota back in the day.  Andy's smart about continual improvement because he worked at Toyota and he's wise and kind because he's...Japanese.    He's like Mr. Miyagi in "The Karate Kid". 

The book gets off to a bad start; on page 19, we see the line balancing charts Mr. Miyagi...er, Andy...has worked out after spending a few minutes in the plant.  There's no indication why he starts with takt time and line balancing, and no clue as to where he gets the data.  But all this is OK because we never see or hear about the line balancing charts again. 

So, the book is bad and not worth reading, right?  Actually, it is worth reading.  Skip the boring "bolted on" chapters about Tom's crazy ex-wife, overlook the awkward start and what you have is a book that actually provides a pretty good out line for implementing continuous improvement.  The author, through Andy, does a good job of presenting the need for a structured approach for identifying and solving operations problems.  He also does a good job of describing the necessary tools and their use.  The book even includes the various forms and formats to be used for production boards, etc.

Andy and Me focuses on the fundamental need for operations excellence, a theme that is treated lightly, when it's not missing altogether, in other books.  Andy is heard to repeat the need for process stability.  Early in the novel, he highlights the importance of safety, good ergonomics, and employee participation, not just as "some things that are nice to have when you can get them" but as the foundation of continual improvement.  A  good deal of attention is paid to visual factory methods for collecting and displaying information.  I've always thought that all these initiatives need to precede more advanced lean techniques and, awkward start to the novel notwithstanding, the author seems to agree.  The methods Andy proposes are simple, participative and effective.  In one quick scene, he's appropriately dismissive of Six Sigma.  Essentially, he makes the point that high-falutin' statistical methods that require "black belt" training aren't needed  for problems that are evident to everybody. 

This book does better than some of the others I've read recently on the "Can you start something Monday?" scale.  (The "CYSSM?" scale measures the extent to which information in the book can be applied readily and easily.  It measures the extent to which the readers' question, "But how, exactly, do I get started and what do I do?" is answered well.)  I think it would be especially useful for managers who have the right spirit regarding continual improvement and are looking for ways to get organized and tools to help them with that.