TPS Benchmarking

We Do Not Make What We Do Not Sell: No More Trucks in Indiana

It is no mistake to say that the people at the top of Toyota, the President, CEO, Chairman and other executives all thoroughly understand production control. How many CEOs in the world can say this? In a word we might say that in TPS terms "production control" is to "make more>>

Genjitsu: The Only Reality

There are those moments when the right words come together in an a way that resonates deeply and inspires one to write them down and repeat them to others. The words by themselves are not profound, and one suspects that even rearranged slightly they would lose their power. I heard more>>

Toyota's Secret to Kaizen Success: Unpaid OT?

There was an interesting development at Toyota last week. Articles reported titles such as Toyota to raise overtime pay for 'voluntary' work. Titles included terms of interest, not often combined: kaizen, voluntary, overwork and death. In a puzzling way, much of the focus was on quality circles and kaizen activities more>>

A Plug for The Illustrated Toyota Production System

We are nearing the final edits, layout and design work for Japanese consultant Ritsushi Tsukuda's book The Illustrated Toyota Production System. It was quite a popular item in Japan so we are happy to bring this to readers in English. To give you an idea of content, here is the more>>

Where does the time go?

That's what I wondered when seeing that it's been nearly a week since the last post. It's an idle question, until you start to think about it. Then you get dizzy, stop and look to those who came before us for insight. People have pondered time for ages: how to more>>

The Secret of TPS

The secret of TPS is that the secret is in plain view. We're not talking about secrets in the sense of the unknown, since much about the Toyota Production System has been made public by Toyota and others who study and write about it. We are often asked, "What is more>>

Comments on Toyota President Watanabe's New Year's Greeting

Toyota entered the popular consciousness in 2007 by overtaking General Motors as the number one automobile manufacturer in the world by vehicles sold. Those of us who study lean manufacturing know that Toyota with its production system has been the best in the world for a few decades. The media more>>

Lean Enterprise Rules of Three

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with Caesar. That's from an eulogy Mark Antony delivers in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. You more>>

Start Simple, Go Back to Basics, Repeat

This is an image of the assembly line at Toyota's Honsha plantin Koromo City, over 60 years ago. We may think we have come a long way from this, but in fact nearly every month I see a 21st century factory that looks not too different from this picture. We more>>

Toyota's Suggestion System: 56 Years and Still Going Strong

In 1951 Toyota launched their Creative Idea Suggestion System. It was largely a copy of suggestion systems that were in place in U.S. companies at the time, namely the Ford Motor Company. Toyota made some notable innovations to it over the years, but most importantly, they stuck with it. The more>>

Muri, Hubris and the Laws of Proportion

One reason that the Toyota Production System is so effective is that it is built around many fundamental principles which apply universally. One of these pieces of timeless wisdom is that muri is bad and should be avoided. Muri is the "overburden" or "unreasonableness." Many of us try to fit more>>

What I Learned About TPS from Ratatouille

Our family watched the Disney-Pixar animated film Ratatouille last night. It is a story about an intelligent rat and a kitchen full of cooks at a haute cuisine restaurant in Paris. About half way through the film a cook named Colette is teaching the protagonist Linguini some of the basics more>>

The Challenge of Lean Human Resource Development, and A Modest Proposal

Good question from Alberto about how Chinese companies who are pursuing Lean manufacturing are managing to invest in their people. There is a lot of truth to the stereotype of the Chinese factory worker doing very simple tasks, in a batch or on an assembly line, without the Lean mainstays more>>

Work is Love Made Visible

In his 1923 book The Prophet, Lebanese American poet and artist and visionary Kahlil Gibran wrote Work is love made visible. What if love is not visible in work? What if you do not love what you do? Perhaps according to Kahlil Gibran, this is not work. It may be more>>

Something Lacking in the TPS House

People point out from time to time that there is something lacking in the TPS house used to explain the Toyota Production System. Typically it is represented with the two pillars of just in time and jidoka, with a foundation of kaizen, standardized work and heijnka. Although the wording differs more>>

The Secret Lives of Toyota Term Employees, Episode 3

The Road to Tahara Prison A Toyota term employee and blogger named Maruo wrote 72 posts over 4 months on his experience working at the Tahara plant. His blog is called Welcome to Tahara Prison (田原刑務所へようこそ). He signed up for a 6 month term at Toyota. All references to “Tahara more>>

The Secret Lives of Toyota Term Employees, Episode 2

How to Pass the Term Employee Job Interview at Toyota The website "The New - Ask the Term Laborer Porsche" (新・期間工ポルシェに訊け) offers a fascinating glimpse into the secret lives of Toyota term employees by giving tips and information to people who are thinking about going to work on contract for more>>

The Toyota Production System is Practice, Not Theory

Pete Abilla from the Shmula blog said in a comment posted to our blog recently: During my short time at Toyota, I learned this lesson well: we were always encouraged to "try and see" -- which meant that we should try new ways of doing things to see if they more>>

Why You Need A Tatakidai

When people say to me "We don't need no more stinkin' Japanese words in our Lean vocabulary," I don't argue. Most of us aren't using all of the ones we've got anyway. Why acquire knowledge you don't intend to use for good? But I will humbly submit that there is more>>

The Secret Lives of Toyota Term Employees, Episode 1

Kaizen and respect for people. These are the words under which Toyota presents itself as a company that builds cars by building people. Yet this is the ideal, and we know that there is always a gap between reality and the ideal. What is the reality of Toyota's labor policies? more>>

Toyota Production System Applied to Software Development

Some of the most interesting insights into the Toyota Production System come from the experiences people have with implementing the TPS outside of manufacturing. Whether it is in schools, hospitals, or software development firms, the challenge of understanding and applying the principles of the Toyota Production System result in new more>>

TPS & the Tao

Some time ago a woman who was studying Taoism and also reading Taiichi Ohno said, "The more I read Taiichi Ohno's book The Toyota Production System-Beyond Large-Scale Production, the more I believe that his philosophies are based in the teaching of Tao Te Ching." Ever curious about things that flow, more>>

There is No Honor in Muri

Unreasonableness is a six syllable, sixteen letter word. It's a lot simpler to say muri in Japanese. Certainly less precious breath is wasted without the four extra syllables. Muri arises when you try to fight variability at the surface level rather than at the systemic level. In other words, when more>>

Challenge, Kaizen, Genchi Genbutsu, Respect, Teamwork

Challenge, kaizen, genchi genbutsu, respect, and teamwork. These are the five ideas that were codified as the fundamental principles that guide the actions of Toyota people in the "Toyota Way 2001". We might call them "values" as in "mission, vision, values" that most organizations will have posted in the lobby more>>

Toyota Production System A to Z

If you ever find yourself face to face with a Japanese Lean sensei, you might find some of these words useful in building common ground. Andon - Colored lamps (red, yellow, green) or visual indicator of abnormalities Batch - It's such an ugly word, the Japanese borrowed ours... Chaku chaku more>>

How Does Lean Thinking Apply to Strategy?

How does Lean thinking apply to strategy? This was a good question that made me think. One way of answering this question might refer to hoshin kanri (policy deployment) but in fact this is more about policy than strategy. If hoshin kanri is about what and how, strategy is about more>>

Toyota Number One in the World... in Recalls?

Not two days after imploring everyone to do kaizen like Toyota, we're reminded that no matter how good you are at lean manufacturing, kaizen, and continuous improvement, if you focus too much on eliminating muda (waste) while ignoring muri (unreasonableness, overburden) you can fail as a business. A snippet of more>>

Will the Real TPS Sensei Please Stand Up?

Tetsuo Hoshino is the Chairman of Gifu Auto Body Industry, a Toyota Group company. He was a student of Taiichi Ohno. Since 1990 he has taught the Toyota Production System to 20,000 senior officials in large Korean companies. Hoshino recently received a medal from the Korean government. On May 9, more>>

100% Dissatisfaction is Our Goal

A May 4, 2007 USA Today article titled Toyota's success pleases proponents of 'lean' looks at the story of Toyota surpassing GM by volume of cars sold and from the angle that the Lean consulting industry benefits. The publicity about Toyota becoming No. 1 will create another burst of energy more>>

Review of The Elegant Solution by Matthew E. May

The Elegant Solution: Toyota's Formula for Mastering Innovation by Matthew E. May is a book about many good ideas. It adds relevant and interesting accounts of the author's eight years working closely alongside Toyota people. The book offers a good balance of Toyota-isms examined in a new light, and favorites more>>

Taking the Toyota Production System to City Hall

There was an encouraging article about Lean government in the March 15, 2007 NB Online (Nikkei Business) titled City Hall in Aichi Studies at Toyota to "Enhance the Capabilities of the Staff" (愛知の市役所がトヨタで修行して「職員力」アップ). Takahama City in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, has been studying with Toyota since the end of 2005 in more>>

How Much Should We Pay for Kaizen Ideas?

"How much should we pay for kaizen ideas?" This is a question we often hear during a kaizen class. The type of kaizen we are talking about here is the everyone-everyday kind, otherwise known as the soikufu system in Japanese, or not-so-aptly named suggestion system in English. At companies like more>>

The Seven Habits of Toyota People

The harder Toyota's overwhelming success becomes to ignore, the more books and articles are written about what makes them great. Many say the same thing, but in different ways. I've just started flipping through a Japanese book titled The Textbook of Toyota-style Work and I've already found something interesting. In more>>

The Trouble with Exploring "all options" at Chrysler

Chrysler is feeling the squeeze. Third quarter losses were twice as large as projected. The DaimlerChrysler leadership are using their wits in an ongoing effort to turn things around. Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche has stated that "All options are open." Sadly, "all options" are probably less than five, and likely more>>

Not Enough "Toyota Way" in Factory Air?

There's a good article over at the New York Times on February 15, 2007 titled The 'Toyota Way' Is Translated for a New Generation of Foreign Managers. It's not about putting Jeffrey Liker's book The Toyota Way into other languages, it's about Toyota taking a more intentional approach to teaching more>>

Toyota Rebrands in Canada

Toyota Canada's new guiding principle, slogan and value statement, to put it in marketing speak, is 'make things better'. Toyota Canada gives itself a giant pat on the back in explaining the results of their extensive market research. But what's not to like about 'make it better' anyway? I can't more>>

The Toyota Way is Doing Obvious Things

...but doing them exceptionally well. This was a comment from an economist on a TV news program in Japan I heard some while ago, that seems to have become common knowledge in Japanese business consciousness. This idea of the Toyota Way being "doing obvious things exceptionally well" (当たり前の事を徹底する) or "being more>>

We Made Someone at Toyota Headquarters Unhappy

We teach the Toyota system. We want to teach it to as many people as want to learn about it. As a consequence we think we provide Toyota with good PR. It seems not everyone at Toyota headquarters agrees. Here is an e-mail we received last week from someone working more>>

Toyota Production System Implementation at Japan Post, Year 4

Here is an update to the story of Toyota instructors teaching TPS to the Japan Post and a partial answer to the question Toyota Botches Lean Implementation at Japan Post? posted earlier in this blog. The following is a summary from the morning paper of the Daily Mainichi on December more>>

Japan Kaikaku Experience Field Report, January 2007

By Brad Schmidt Here are some highlights from the Japan Kaikaku Experience we just completed. Toyota was quite amazing. They are now doing full kitting on sections of their assembly line. The kit carts go down the line with the car and then come back up empty to be filled more>>

TPS Kids

Modern marketing gurus will tell you that in order to build customer loyalty you need customers to develop a deep, emotional attachment to the brand. One of the ways this is done is by telling engaging stories about the brand. Toyota seems to have gotten this memo, and when it more>>

Buy Ford, Sell GM, Hold Toyota (but don't take investment advice from me...)

General Motors Chief Executive Rick Wagoner has been in the news this week with fighting words: “I like being No. 1, and I think our people take pride in it,” Wagoner said this week. “It's not something we're going to sit back and let somebody else pass us by.” We more>>

Endless Creativity, Inquisitiveness and Pursuit of Improvement

In his New Year's address Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe positions 2007 as a foundation building year. He acknowledges both that Toyota sees not only strong growth in demand for their products but also fierce competition. He calls out not only for innovation but also sticking to the basics: To that more>>

Note to Toyota: Top Five Things to Do in 2007 as World's #1 Automobile Manufacturer

According to a Wall Street Journal article today Toyota Is Poised to Surpass GM As the Top Car Maker Next Year. That would be 9.04 million vehicles, just ahead of General Motors. Congratulations are premature, but it's not too early to start thinking about New Year's resolutions for the worlds more>>

And Now We Have "Kakushin" (sigh...)

In the December 9, 2006 Wall Street Journal article titled As Rivals Catch Up, Toyota CEO Spurs Big Efficiency Drive the Toyota Motor Corporation President Watanabe adds another Japanese word to the Lean lexicon: kakushin. Debates could rage for years among Lean geeks: is it kaizen, kaikaku or kakushin? Let's more>>

The Toyota Way is Total Company Discipline, Partial Study is GM's Failure

Kan Higashi was President of the NUMMI company, the joint venture between Toyota and GM, when it was started two decades ago. In the October 16, 2006 issue of Nikkei Business (a Japanese magazine) Mr. Higashi shares his insights in a short article titled The Toyota Way is Total Company more>>

Dissatisfaction: The Essence of Toyota Management and the Kaizen Mindset

I've said again and again that complacency and being satisfied with the current condition are anathema to kaizen. The article in Fast Company December/January 2006 issue titled "No Satisfaction" is excellent. Here are some highlights and big ideas from the article: Restructure a little bit every work shift rather than more>>

Things They Say at Toyota: Being Busy is Shameful

Being busy is shameful. What an odd thought. It goes against the workaholic nature of most Americans and our Puritan work ethic. I can't recall exactly where I heard this but it was definitely from one of my sensei who came from the Toyota group. The idea may very well more>>

Lessons from Toyota's IT Strategy

There are some interesting lessons from Toyota's IT Strategy in the minutes from the Third IT Economics Salon of the Economic and Social Research Institute which is part of the Cabinet Office of the Japanese Government. The guest speaker was Hiroaki Yoshida, a Toyota executive who spoke on the topic more>>

Things They Say at Toyota: Ask "Why?" Five Times

One of the ways to judge whether a company is succeeding in their journey towards being an organization that embraces continuous improvement based on the Toyota Production System model is how often people ask "why?" as part of the daily management and problem solving dialogue. The five why process is more>>

Learning English the Toyota Production System Way!

You know Toyota Production System has hit the big time in Japan when there's an English language learning book out based on TPS. It's titled "Mastering the Toyota Production System through English Speech Practice" by Matsuzaki Hisazumi. If only it were that easy! Here are 20 phrases from the book more>>

Things They Say at Toyota: Protect Your Own Castle

One of the expressions I've come across working with and reading the writings of Toyota people is "Protect your own castle" 「自分の城は自分で守れ」. You could also say "You are responsible for protecting your castle." At first this sounded like a bit of common sense advice on taking personal responsibility until I more>>

A Workplace that Encourages Movement Gets Good Results

A classroom that encourages movement gets good grades. One of our team members recently spotted this article during a Northwest Airlines flight in the September 2006 in-flight magazine. According to a study done by the Mayo Clinic with a class room of fifth grade students in Rochester, Minnesota, getting rid more>>

How to Learn the Fundamentals of the Toyota Production System in 30 Days

Anyone can be taught to do kaizen in 30 days. If you're wondering how to learn the fundamentals of the Toyota Production System in 30 days (or how to teach it) you can take a hint from the June 23, 2006 article in Nikkei Joho Strategy titled Drumming in the more>>

Panta Rei Blog Gets Big Time Press... Almost

Baseline Magazine has several articles of interest today about Toyota and their excellent business systems. One article calls Toyota: A Tough Tech Customer and shows that contrary to popular myth, 17 out of 18 major information systems at Toyota are non-proprietary and a provided by a virtual who's who of more>>

Can I Get an A3 Report with those 2.38 Million Recalls?

Toyota has made public apologies this year for both the number of recalls and goofs handling them. A Wall Street Journal article today titled Toyota May Delay New Models To Address Rising Quality Issues speculates that Toyota will slow down their new vehicle launches or extend their product development time more>>

Learning Lessons from Big Mistakes

I made a big mistake last week. Apologies were made. Lessons were learned. Errors in judgment are revealing mistakes to learn from, since in your your state of mind at the time you were not in error. The kaizen philosophy requires that we learn from both our mistakes and our more>>

When did Toyota Get to be a Company Like This?

Toyota does not sell cars because people crave their sleek design or because the Camry is a status symbol. People buy and drive Toyotas because they are reliable and they have a high resale value. They are well built and reasonably priced. What would happen if Toyota vehicles were suddenly more>>

Toyota Feels the Heat from Hyundai

The Autoblog is always good for some emotional point-counterpoint when it comes to the fates and doings of the automobile manufacturers in the United States. Today's post titled Toyota to suppliers: don't sell to Hyundai proves no exception with some spirited back-and-forth. The gist is that Toyota does not want more>>

Kaizen the Design, Recall the Part

A Washington Street Journal article on May 31, 2006 reports that once again, Toyota Recalls Some Prius Cars. That's some 170,000 Prius vehicles. If you include the other models it's nearly a million cars recalled for parts not strong enough and at risk of cracking under stress. What's going on more>>

Construction Executives Visit Toyota, Learn Kaizen

From time to time we post articles about our Lean manufacturing benchmarking trips and travelogues of doing kaizen in interesting places around the world. Today I want to point you to the Reforming Project Management blog and an article titled Construction Executive Lessons from the Toyota Visit. Our friends Hal more>>

Toyota Seeking Top Talent: Tightwads Only Need Apply

There have been several articles over the last year pointing out the challenge Toyota is facing as they expand overseas to find good people. The Toyota’s Challenge: Growing the Talent points out that Toyota is growing faster than they can develop people to fill the senior management ranks. Racism? Bill more>>

The Link Between Gemba Kaizen and Human Resource Development

Nidhi Shah recently posted a question on this blog "Is there a link between Gemba kaizen and HRD personnel in an organisation?" Thanks for your question Nidhi. Kaizen and Lean manufacturing can sometimes be seen as technical areas that are owned by production management, industrial engineering or quality departments. In more>>

The Takt Time for Your Question is 42 Seconds

An interesting blurb in The Detroit News today titled For Toyota Briefing, Timing's Everything gives an example how at Toyota "... the renowned Toyota Production System is not limited to making production leaner and more efficient. It permeates every facet of the business, from vehicle development and purchasing to sales, more>>

"Simple Slim" Engine Production Powers Profits at Toyota

The February 25, 2006 article in Macleans highlights Toyota's approach to kaizen at the product design and production preparation process. The challenge of 50% cost reduction in the foundry were announced in 2003 and 300 Toyota engineers were put to work on developing a new process. The photographs in the more>>

Why GM and Ford Can't Embrace the Toyota Way

Who says they can't? Dr. James Womack that's who, in his article this week, titled Why Toyota Won. You can read it here if you have an online subscription to the WSJ or if you don't, it's reproduced here. I enjoyed the article. The kaizen mindset I've been trained in more>>

Experience Kaikaku, Day 5: What I Learned about Kaizen

The reason we call this trip the Japan Kaikaku Experience is because this learning experience takes place in Japan and because a "kaikaku" or "transformation" happens in people's heads by the end of the week. The kaikaku for me this time was deepening my understanding of how the managers we more>>

Experience Kaikaku, Day 4: The KTC Way

One of the highlights of this Japan Kaikaku Experience trip was the visit to KTC. This company has more than 40 years of history making strong, high quality hand tools. They supply tire wrenches for new Toyota cars and they also make the tools used by Toyota F1 pit crew. more>>

Experience Kaikaku, Day 3: The Thinking Behind TPS

Toyota posted a 34% rise in third-quarter net profit, clearing $3.34 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2005. This hit the news just about as we were finishing our tours of Toyota Kamigo and Tsutsumi plants. It’s easy to copy what you see, and fail. U.S. companies touted as more>>

Experience Kaikaku, Day 2: Fun with Pipes & Joints

We have fun on the Japan Kaikaku Experience, but not that much fun. We're talking about the kinds of pipes and joints you use to build things, not smoke. Here is an example of a parts picking station with sensors built in as a pokayoke (mistake-proof). Practically every company in more>>

Experience Kaikaku, Day 1: The Airport

This week I will be blogging from Japan. Internet access providing, I hope to be sharing bits of wisdom we gain each day with you on what is now our 17th Japan Kaikaku Experience trip. So far I have mostly spent time between the airport and hotel meeting and greeting more>>

Nine Years Later: Kaizen Progress at Toyota Wows Edson

Last week I was back in Japan learning about kaizen and Lean manufacturing. It had been nine years since I was there living, working and learning at several Toyota companies. I was in Japan with a group which had come from Mexico to participate in one of our JKE (Japan more>>

Reflecting on Toyota's 2,411,117 Recalls in 2005

That's quite a big number. It's actually more vehicles than Toyota sold in the U.S. in 2005. It's more than double the number for 2004. It's not as many as some other car companies, but far from zero defects. A December 7, 2005 article in the Chicago Tribune titled So more>>

Respect for People? Labor Unrest at Toyota Kirloskar

There has been labor unrest at the Toyota Kirloskar joint venture in Bidadi, India over the last week. Indian business news has covered these events, but there has been very little mention of it in American or Japanese news. On January 8th, 2005 fear of physical harm to people and more>>

American Workers Embrace Kaizen Culture at NUMMI

Here is a link to an excellent article from September 2005 in the Manufacturing Engineering magazine about the GM-Toyota 50/50 joint venture NUMMI. In this excerpt form the article one of the team members who later became a team leader talks about how TPS and the kaizen culture was taught more>>

Kaizen, for the Love of America

We received our first official hate mail today. You can read the comment at the end of the January 3, 2006 entry on this blog. I am accused of hating Americans. I don't. I am an American, as are my children, many of the people at Gemba, clients, suppliers, etc. more>>

Happy New Year, and Genchi Gembutsu

I don't mean to be lazy about crafting a New Year's message, but once again the good people at Toyota have made my job easy. This is the first New Year for Mr. Watanabe as Toyota's new President. In a memo titled New Years Greetings from Toyota President Watanabe gives more>>

How to Kaizen Boxing Day

One of the greatest evils that kaizen and Lean manufacturing attempts to eliminate is overproduction, one of the 7 wastes. Overproduction hides true capacity, exacerbates quality problems, builds inventory, and generally amplifies the other wastes. Today was Boxing Day, so called in English-speaking places other than the U.S.A. Boxing Day more>>

Are they Nuts? Lean Team Shouts "Do It First and Think Later"

Edson Oda Senior Operations Consultant It was funny to see some puzzled faces and hear some comments and jokes from those who had seen the NEC Lean manufacturing slogan or heard the Lean team shout loudly 'Faço, Faço, Faço Já! Faço Primeiro e Penso Depois!" Some people were very curious. more>>

Faça Primeiro e Pense Depois: What I Learned from Japan in Brazil

Edson Oda Senior Operations Consultant On the Evolving Excellence blog today Bill Waddell admits he doesn’t speak Japanese, warns against drowning your Lean efforts with Japanese lessons, and takes on the Japanese for not being curious enough to visit and learn from his website. Bill, the Japanese are not hitting more>>

Heads Firmly in Sand, Motor City Chairmen Speak Out

General Motors Chairman Rick Wagoner asks why U.S. automobile manufacturers are doing so poorly when foreign ones are doing so well in the December 6, 2005 Wall Street Journal editorial A Portrait of My Industry. "Despite public perception, the answer is not that foreign auto makers are more productive or more>>

Triangulating the Problem of American Manufacturing, Part 2

Why do organizations fail to invest sufficiently in their people? The term Human Capital was introduced over 40 year ago by University of Chicago Professor Gary Becker. Human capital are the assets a person owns in for form of job skills or knowledge and can be defined even more broadly more>>

Triangulating the Problem of American Manufacturing, Part 1

Triangulation is a process by which you figure out where you are by checking three points or positions. Triangulation can be used to study a phenomenon by comparing three (or more) types of points of view or data sources. Three things came together for me this week on the problem more>>

Eric's Japan Lean Benchmarking Trip, 3

This is the third and final installation of Eric's report from his Lean manufacturing benchmarking trip to Japan in October. "Omron Taiyo manufactures electronic parts and employs the handicapped. Omron Taiyo produces various switches, circuit boards, and fastener packages. Many of the participants on this benchmarking trip felt this was more>>

Eric's Japan Lean Benchmarking Trip, 2

The impressions of what he saw are still strong in Eric's mind several weeks after returning from his Lean manufacturing benchmarking trip to Japan: "The visit to Toyota was everything I expected, which was amazing. We first visited the showroom and visitor center that had excellent exhibits on TPS and more>>

Eric's Lean Benchmarking Trip to Japan, Part 1

Last week Eric Sander joined a group of clients on our Lean manufacturing benchmarking trip. It was Eric's first trip to Japan. Eric survived a week of fish and rice. When he got back to the United States, he had a nice plate of steak and potatoes. Here are some more>>

Toyota Loves France!

Or so the full page ad taken out by the French government in the Otober 31, 2005 issue of BusinessWeek would have you believe. The ad takes no chances that the reader might not get the point, using the tag line "The New France. Where the Smart Money Goes." With more>>

Toyota is No Friend of the Earth, Say Greens

Last week I praised Toyota's environmental efforts but a new and sharply critical ad campaign is making me reconsider. Even as Toyota continues its advertising campaign to promote its Hybrid Synergy Drive technology with the "what if..." series, criticism comes from the green group Bluewater Network, a division of Friends more>>

Tune into NUMMI Tour Tales

Today Mark Graban posted his first trip report from his visit to NUMMI, the GM / Toyota joint venture in California. I won't give away the details, but it's a good reminder to "abandon fixed ideas" and do what's right rather than keep up appearances. Visit the Lean Manufacturing Blog more>>

Tough Love for Delphi Leadership

Dr. James Womack is not the only one saddened to see a corporation like Delphi who championed Lean so well struggle so mightily. I read Dr. Womack's article on the LEI site about Delphi, hoping for a lesson learned. I was disappointed. Dr. Womack talks about seeing some of the more>>

Toyota Kaizens... a Shrub?

The Toyota Roof Garden, a biotech business of Toyota, has developed an air-cleaning Kirsch Pink. This new type of shrub absorbs 1.3 times more pollutants than Cherry Sage. Clever American corporate strategy consultants might think spending resources to improve a shrub is a dangerous diversion away from core competencies for more>>

Virtual JKE - Final Entry

Kent Bradley VP, North America "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." -- Confucius "Sometimes you don't know what you've seen 'til you get back home." --Luke Friday, our group's’ last day. After a very, very early morning (5:00 AM) departure, a small hard-core team of more>>

Ford Adopts Toyota-style Supplier Strategy

There's good news today from the Ford Motor Company. The September 29, 2005 WSJ article "Ford Seeks Big Savings By Overhauling Supply System: No. 2 Auto Maker Will Offer Larger and Longer Contracts But Use Fewer Companies" details Ford's plans to implement a more Toyota-like supplier relationship model in order more>>

Virtual JKE Day Five

Kent Bradley VP, North America As someone who only recently joined the consulting world after 25 years directing manufacturing, assembly, and distribution operations, I can say with absolute conviction that I have never seen a lean assembly implementation the equal of Ricoh's much written about program. The effectiveness of materials more>>

Virtual JKE Day Four

Kent Bradley VP, North America It is Wednesday night in Tokyo, after another long day on the Gemba Research JKE tour. Today we visited Hokuetsu Industries, which owns about 10% of the global market for industrial air compressors and has been hammering hard and long --over twenty years--at being a more>>

Virtual JKE Day Three

Kent Bradley VP, North America Day three on the Gemba road was long, hot, and fascinating. We were on our way to catch the bullet train for Denso before 7:00. On the way, we took the usual opportunity to go over what we would be seeing and Brad provided some more>>

Is Quality a Thing or is it a Process? Part 2

Last week Ford announced a major move into hybrid electric vehicles by 2010. At the same time, Toyota announced an advertising campaign to promote its gasoline/electric hybrid technologies known as Hybrid Synergy Drive, or HSD. Toyota marketing would like the consumer to think that HSD is superior to other hybrids more>>

Is Quality a Thing or is it a Process? Part 1

A number of recent events, experiences and bits of news have me thinking about copy products, the quality, values and processes that make up a brand, and what this means for Lean. The Toyota brand is most commonly associated quality. People buy Toyotas for their reliability, durability and resale value, more>>

Virtual JKE Part Two

Kent Bradley VP, North America Day 2, the first real day of our Gemba Research Japan Kaikaku Experience tour. "Going to the gemba" is the whole point of this tour - to be the best requires going to see the best. Today that would be the Omron plant an hour more>>

Virtual JKE

A key aspect of our work here at Gemba is the Japan Kaikaku Experience. We take business leaders to Japan to see the world's best practitioners of lean. This week, Kent Bradley, on his second tour of Japan, will share his experiences as JKE September 2005 gets under way. Join more>>

Strong Supervision: The Key to Long-term Kaizen

A few weeks ago I had lunch with Tom Berghan, Lean Manager at Genie Industries. He is an avid student of the Toyota Production System and is always good for practical insights into ground-level Lean implementation. Tom observed that as American manufacturers are outsourcing, Toyota is keeping work in-house. When more>>

Wipro Studies TPS to Achieve Lean Transactions

I'm very excited about an article in Business Week titled "Taking a Page from Toyota's Playbook" on how Indian info tech companies are adopting the Toyota model. As an example, Wipro visited a Toyota factory to study TPS, concluding "The goal for Wipro is to become the Toyota of business more>>

The Best Lean Factory in the USA?

According to an article today in the San Antonio Express News, a group people from Toyota visited the York International factory a few months ago to acquire air conditioners for the new Toyota factory. Visiting the factory the Toyota representatives said they had never seen the Toyota Production System applied more>>

Toyota Raises Prices, but Not for That Reason

Toyota announced 1.6% price increases in several Lexus and Scion model vehicles on Friday July 8, 2005. Some months ago when Chairman Okuda said Toyota may raise prices to help out struggling Ford and GM, I was impressed again by Toyota. This time Toyota was quick to deny that this more>>

95% Cost Reduction: That's Kaikaku

According to a June 17, 2005 article in the Financial Times, Toyota plans to cut the cost of hydrogen powered fuel cell vehicles by from $1,000,000 to $50,000 by 2015. That is a 95% cost reduction, in 10 years. The Lean manufacturing efforts of most companies would be considered successful more>>

Balancing Market Leadership and Social Responsibility at Toyota

It has been an interesting week for Toyota watchers. In response to Chairman Okuda's call to Japanese automobile makers last week to raise prices to give GM some "breathing room", Toyota's operational executives quickly announced that there were no plans to do this. Yet the helping hand from Toyota to more>>

Toyota's Lean Manufacturing Metrics

In one of our Lean Manufacturing Benchmarking Tours to Japan (Japan Kaikaku Experience) the people on the tour had a goal to come up with company-wide metrics. The same metrics would be used for different business units so that the conglomerate could judge them better. The question was put to more>>

Lean Manufacturing with a Temporary Workforce

One of the companies we visited in Japan in our Japan Benchmarking Trips (Japan Kaikaku Experience) employed a large percentage of temporary labor to help make their labor costs truly variable. One of the questions asked to them from our group was "How do you do Kaizen and Lean Manufacturing more>>

100% Efficiency is Not the Goal

As we do in each of our trips to benchmark the best lean companies in Japan, on our latest trip in March we visited Toyota. One of the surprising things to come out of this visit and later on our Q&A time with them was that Toyota doesn't want their more>>

Subtle Shifts in the 7 Wastes of Lean

As followers of the Toyota Way we try to stay we try to stay true to the practices, principles, and values that come out of that great company. There is always a lot more to learn about what we call Lean (TPS). Toyota is always taking kaizen to a higher more>>

The Trap of Managing by Computer Screens

One of the things that I notice when I go to offices in the US is walls everywhere and a computer screen at each desk. I recently lead a group of clients to Japan to visit a Toyota group company office that had taken the principles of Lean and applied more>>

The Power of Ideas from Everyone

Too few companies on the Lean journey have effectively incorporated what is known as "teian" or suggestion schemes for employees' creative ideas. Although kaizen breakthrough activity may seem more dramatic and appealing, it is the slow trickle of creative ideas over many years that has kept companies like Toyota on more>>

The Toyota Job Description: Follow Standards & Find Better Ways

The Toyota managers who share their insights with us on our study missions to Japan tell us that there are two things that are part of every Toyota' employee's job. They are: 1) Follow the standard 2) Find a better way This is the essence of kaizen. These simple yet more>>

Product Development Performance Metrics

On our Japan Kaikaku Experience trip in August, we visited Omron, a manufacturer of sensors and factory automation products. They have been implementing TPS step by step and they are very Lean in the factory. They have relocated their Product Development team to the same campus as their production team more>>

Lean and Green

Of the week of August 22-28 we conducted a private Japan Kaikaku Experience (Lean study mission) which was a great learning experience for everyone. There were many take-aways in Lean management (of which more later). One of my greatest personal 'a-ha' moments was in the area of what leading Lean more>>