Liker groups the principles into four broad categories, represented by a pyramid; the foundation being Philosophy, proceeding to Process, People/Partners, and, at the pinnacle, Problem Solving. He describes how many of the principles will result in counter-intuitive conclusions that the book plans to show improves operations.

In order to properly represent the philosophy, he presents the history of Toyota from its days as an automated loom manufacturer. He feels it is important to understand metamorphosis of the corporate culture and its philosophy as it gradually transformed into TPS; he reinforces this throughout the book.

The core of the book is on the fourteen principles. Each principle is discussed in a chapter and numerous examples are provides on how to use them. The examples are from a variety of environments (manufacturing, service and office) and are explained clearly.

The book concludes with a process and template for implementing the principles in an organization.

The book assumes no prior knowledge of lean principles and only basic knowledge of manufacturing. The examples are directly related to manufacturing and service industries. Although the book is not on project management, a majority of the concepts are applicable to projects.

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