Thinking Beyond Lean, Michael A. Cusumano and Kentaro Nobeoka, Free Press, 1998.
The subtitle is “How multi-project management is transforming product development at Toyota and other companies,” and that pretty much says what it is. Once you have lean approaches, how do you balance your whole set of product lines? Do you treat them as independent projects, or transfer technology between them? The authors suggest that this should be a considered decision, and also suggest that a concurrent transfer need not be as problematic as you might expect (though it can be carried too far). This is definitely not the first book you should read on the subject of “lean,” but it does address a real concern, described in the context of the automobile industry. (Reviewed May, ’03)