[akeck]

My favorite book in this topic is "The High-Velocity Edge: How Market Leaders Leverage Operational Excellence to Beat the Competition: Second Edition" by Steven J. Spear (Formerly "Chasing The Rabbit")

Also really good: Deming wrote his perspective in "Out of Crisis" and Toyota's Taiichi Ohno wrote about his experience in "Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production". As others have mentioned, Deming laid the ground work for this type of thinking in post-war Japan. Taiichi Ohno led the initial development of the Toyota Production System.