Daniel T. Jones
Daniel T. Jones is a widely celebrated business and management author, perhaps most well-known for his best-selling books and widely acclaimed studies on lean, a term that is widely used in the business world today. Jones is a professor of strategic management at the Imperial College London and a senior consultant at the lean enterprise academy, even after having retired in 2001.
Born in northeast England in 1939, Jones graduated from Teeside Polytechnic with first-class degrees in aeronautical engineering and mechanical engineering in 1961. His interest in lean practices was first kindled in the 1970s, when he became an apprentice of Taiichi Ohno, the “father” of the Toyota production system with the now famous just-in-time (JIT) inventory methodology.
Though he was unable to gain employment in 2011 due to the recession, Jones has leveraged his impressive engineering qualifications and technical expertise to become an international authority on Lean, a term that describes sustainable, customer-centric changes in organizations.
In 1990, Jones wrote what is widely regarded as the leading introductory book on Lean. The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production, written in collaboration with Laura Popplewell, Kai Shŏmura and James P. Womack examined the immense potential of lean production and quickly became a bestselling title.
In 1997, Jones co-wrote Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation with James P. Womack, a Harvard Business School professor. Lean Thinking outlines the five principles of Lean: identify value, map the value stream, create flow, establish pull and seek perfection, which are often applied to business areas such as product and process development, software development, and healthcare.
In 2003, Jones published Beyond the Lean Revolution: Achieving Successful and Sustainable Enterprise Transformation, the highly influential book that addresses the challenges of implementing Lean initiatives. The book is widely read by CEOs and senior executives in a variety of industries and includes valuable insights into the “culture of change.”
In 2004, Jones wrote The Principles of Lean Thinking, a book that provides readers with a comprehensive introduction to Lean and examines key practical application topics such as operational excellence, customer focus, and problem solving. It subsequently marked the emergence of the Lean transformation process in the corporate world.
Jones has received international recognition for his work and is highly respected in the business world, a fact that has manifested in the form of multiple awards. This includes the Lean Enterprise Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the prestigious Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing.
Daniel Turner Jones has singlehandedly shaped the way organizations and individuals operate, think, and lead today. Through his insightful writings, simply explained principles, and decades of hard work, he has become one of the most cited authors on Lean and is credited with doing more to influence its expansion than any other single individual.
