A popular search term for people coming to the blog is “lean manufacturing quotes.” I’m not real big on using quotes and don’t have a ready collection handy, but I thought I would reach out to you, the blog readers. Maybe we can form a collection of quotes here for people to find and use?
I thinking of sayings and quotes from Toyota leaders (Shingo, Ohno, etc.) and some of the prominent lean writers and lean thinkers. You can either submit them using the “comments” feature, or send them to me via email.
Now, I don’t mean “slogans.” These aren’t things to be hung on the wall in a factory, like “Safety is YOUR job.” Those are demotivating, as Deming pointed out and I’ve certainly seen in practice.
I’m talking about good or pithy quotes that can be reminders or learning points for all of us.
You can easily come back to this page via www.leanblog.org/quotes.
About LeanBlog.org: Mark Graban is a consultant, author, and speaker in the “lean healthcare” methodology. Mark is author of the Shingo Award-winning book Lean Hospitals and the upcoming book Healthcare Kaizen. He is also the Chief Improvement Officer for the technology startup KaiNexus.
LeanBlog on Facebook
Add Mark on Google+
Lean Blog YouTube Channel
"Lean Hospitals" Book Discussion
RSS
Newsletter
Twitter
Facebook
Google+
LinkedIn
YouTube
{ 1 trackback }
{ 86 comments… read them below or add one }
“The most dangerous kind of waste is the waste we do not recognize.” – Shigeo Shingo (Toyota)
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
11 
0
My favorite Shingo Quote:
“We have to grasp not only the Know-How but also ‘Know Why’”, if we want to master the Toyota Production System”
My most frequently used Ohno quote:
“All we are doing is looking at the time line, from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducing the time line by reducing the non-value adding wastes.”
Like or Dislike:
7 
0
“Fall seven times. Stand up eight.”
Old Japanese Proverb.
Found at the “Got Boondoggle” blog.
Like or Dislike:
5 
1
“If you see a snake, just kill it – don’t appoint a committee on snakes.”
Ross Perot, referring to GM. This could apply to lean, the “just do it” mentality of kaizen.
Like or Dislike:
6 
1
You have to manage a system. The system doesn’t manage itself.
W. Edwards Deming
Like or Dislike:
4 
0
My friend Terry Begnoche is fond of quoting Dr. Deming as having said “A bad system will beat a good person every time.” It provides needed consolation when it looks like you just can’t produce the results you want.
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
I’ve recently heard the Deming quote the same way. I always thought it would be more clear to say “A bad system will DEFEAT a good person every time.”
By “beat”, you might wonder if that means to “do better than.”
Someone might interpret that having any system, even a bad system, is better than relying on a skilled person.
The way the quote is intended though, is absolutely correct. Good people will struggle when being part of a bad system. Look at how many “good doctors” make mistakes in surgery. It’s not just “bad doctors” with a bad track record, it’s “good” doctors working in a bad system, where it’s easy to make mistakes and not catch them.
Like or Dislike:
3 
1
I don’t have the book in front of me, but in Workplace Management, Ohno said something similar to ‘the only place that work and motion are the same thing is the zoo where people pay to see the animals move around’. This strikes me mostly when I sit in meetings that take longer than necessary to derive consensus.
Like or Dislike:
3 
2
“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.” – Thomas Jefferson
Like or Dislike:
7 
0
“You can act your way into good thinking faster than you can think your way into good actions.”
Like or Dislike:
3 
1
This one is for the Lean implementers out there…
“Your Lean Process should be a Lean Process.”
Pretty basic idea; but not so common in practice.
Like or Dislike:
4 
2
“Progress is impossible without the ability to admit mistakes.” Imai
Like or Dislike:
7 
0
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but habit.”
Aristotle
Like or Dislike:
6 
0
Tell me and I will forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I’ll understand.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
29 
0
These are some of my favorite:
“Where there is no Standard there can be no Kaizen” Ohno
“Quick and Crude is better than Slow and Elegant”
On change: “Different isn’t always better…but better is always different”
Like or Dislike:
9 
0
It was really Masaaki Imai who said the quote about standards and kaizen, at least in a documented way:
Imai wrote:
“Where there is no standard, there can be no improvement. For these reasons, standards are the basis for both maintenance and improvement”
https://kindle.amazon.com/post/GBA0QH2MAOFP
Ohno might have agreed and Imai might have learned this from Ohno…
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
“We will win and you will lose. You cannot do anything because your failure is an internal disease. Your companies are based on Taylor’s principles. Worse, your heads are Taylorized too. You firmly believe that sound management means executives on the one side and workers on the other, on the one side men who think and on the other side men who only work.”
Konusuke Matsushita
Like or Dislike:
4 
1
“Why not make the work easier and more interesting so that people do not have to sweat?
The Toyota style is not to create results by working hard. It is a system that says there is no limit to people’s creativity.
People don’t go to Toyota to ‘work’ they go there to ‘think’”
- Taiichi Ohno, co-creator of the Toyota Production System
found at http://www.dwightbowen.com
Like or Dislike:
3 
1
No man or woman does it all by themself (TEAM)
Like or Dislike:
1 
9
“Continuous Improvement is not about the things you do well— that’s work. Continuous Improvement is about removing the things that get in the way of your work. The headaches, the things that slow you down, that’s what Continuous Improvement is all about.”
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.
-Henry Ford-
Like or Dislike:
8 
0
From Jim Womack:
“Managers will try anything easy that doesn’t work before they will try anything hard that does work.”
Like or Dislike:
5 
1
“If Lean is common sense, it would be more common”
Like or Dislike:
1 
5
“You should not need an MBA to understand the numbers in your company.”
Jean Cunningham
Like or Dislike:
5 
0
Time waste differs from material waste in that there can be no salvage.
— Henry Ford
Like or Dislike:
3 
0
“Variation breeds inventory.” (Shingo?)
Like or Dislike:
1 
1
Everyone gets the experience; some get the lesson.
– T.S. Eliot
Like or Dislike:
3 
0
Planning is priceless.
The plan itself is useless.
–Gen. Binford Peay
US Army Gulf War Leader
Like or Dislike:
4 
1
“It is management that cause companies to fail, not employees”
Like or Dislike:
2 
1
“A foolproof system is no match for a system-proof fool!”…
Like or Dislike:
3 
4
Lean marketing is a challenge. Introducing creative people to standard work is not without some pain .. here is a comment that I received from one ..
“I suppose one ought not to employ a magician and then complain that he does not behave like other people.”
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
* Time waste differs from material waste in that there can be no
salvage. The easiest of all wastes and the hardest to correct is the waste
of time, because wasted time does not litter the floor like wasted
material… Henry Ford, 1926
* I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall
adopt new views so fast as they appear to be true views… Abraham Lincoln,
1862
* If you need a new process and don’t install it, you pay for it
without getting it. … Ken Stork, past president of AME
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
To go along with the quote-”Different isn’t always better…but better is always different”
If you want better, then learn to be different.
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
“You can act your way into good thinking faster than you can think your way into good actions.”
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
“Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems that we created with our current patterns of thought.”
~ Albert Einstein
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
This is one of my favorite quotes by my CEO:
“I would rather get a person to think than buy a new car. After all, a car is just a piece of metal.”
- Anthony P. Hales
Like or Dislike:
1 
2
“First we’ll make it work – then we’ll make it pretty”
- my crusty old former boss
Like or Dislike:
8 
0
“Go slow to go fast.”
Toyota expression
Like or Dislike:
1 
1
It’s only the last turn of a bolt that tightens it – the rest is just movement. ~ Shigeo Shingo
Like or Dislike:
6 
0
“Failure to change is a vice! I want everyone at toyota to change and at least do not be an obstacle for someone else who wants to cahnge.” ~ Hiroshi Okuda, Senior Advisor, board memeber and former chairman of Toyota Motor Corp.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
“Even the greatest idea can become meaningless in the rush to judgement. To gauge an idea as feasible we must cut our ties to the status quo and find the balance between constructive criticism and judgment. Within that balance we will uncover crucial input for making our ideas a reality.” – Shigeo Shingo.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.”
- W. Edwards Deming
“All models are wrong. Some models are useful.” – Demming
Benjamin Franklin’s 5-Why Analysis:
For want of a nail a shoe was lost,
for want of a shoe a horse was lost,
for want of a horse a rider was lost,
for want of a rider an army was lost,
for want of an army a battle was lost,
for want of a battle the war was lost,
for want of the war the kingdom was lost,
and all for the want of a little horseshoe nail.
“You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing there will be no result.” -Ghandi
Like or Dislike:
5 
0
“The road to success is always under construction” (chinese proverb)
Like or Dislike:
7 
0
One of my favorite quotes -
Never mistake motion for action – Ernest Hemingway
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin
Like or Dislike:
4 
1
there’s a lot of famous author’s quotes on http://www.quotelandia.com
Like or Dislike:
0 
1
“In God we trust. All others, bring data.”
W. Edwards Deming
Like or Dislike:
9 
4
“The method outlined also leads to an important principle which all should work to, and which will do much to correct the usual policy found in shops. It can be stated as follows:
The method to follow in getting the work through a shop is not to apply pressure at A towards B, but to draw a B from A.(emphasis is author’s)
This means a ‘pull’ type instead of a ‘push’ type, as one man expressed it.”
From Installing Efficiency Methods, by C.E. Knoeppel, 1917
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”
-Sir Winston Churchill
Like or Dislike:
7 
0
If management is not removing the obstacle, they are the obstacle!
Like or Dislike:
7 
1
“The Biggest room, is the room for improvement” – chinese proverb
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Thanks, Ted, for:
“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do. – Leonardo da Vinci
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
“In times of change the learners will inherit the earth, while the knowers will find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”
Eric Hoffer
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
“Do you believe that you can learn how to become a Marine by reading books and applying what you learned? NO!”
Like or Dislike:
1 
2
“Be quick, but don’t hurry.” John Wooden
Like or Dislike:
1 
1
“Reward those who Do,
Train those who Can’t,
Replace those who Won’t”
Henn’s Creed
Like or Dislike:
9 
0
Albert Einstein once said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
10 
0
didn’t he know probability theory?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
From Duke, quotes of Shigeo Shingo:
Real waste lurks in places that don’t look like waste.
Time is merely the shadow of motion
Four goals of improvement: 1) make things easier 2) better 3) faster and 4) cheaper
Delays are less a matter of time and more an effect of timing
It is more important to know-why than know-how
Unless people’s motion add value they are useless toward the goal
Are our specifications or frequencies too tight for accomplishing the task?
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
There are two reasons why we change. We learn enough that we want to or we hurt enough that we have to
Like or Dislike:
4 
0
““Only fools worship their tools””
Dee Hock
Like or Dislike:
1 
1
Just saw this in Quality Digest:
"The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor: he took my measure anew every time he saw me, whilst all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me.”
—George Bernard Shaw
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
"People say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing – that's why we recommend it daily." – Zig Ziglar
Like or Dislike:
3 
0
I was kind of surprised to not see this lean quote posted yet…
"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all" – Peter Drucker
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
16 
1
Two of my favorites from Pascal Dennis:
"Complexity is a crude state; simplicity is the end of a process of refinement."
"At Toyota a manager's job is to practice and teach P-D-C-A."
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
No one has more trouble than the person who claims to have no trouble. – Taiichi Ohno, father of the Toyota production system.
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
From the "Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean". The formula to assess changing the culture:
HxVxF > R
H is Hatred for the current reality, V is the Vision of the ideal state, F is the courage to take the First Steps (take a risk), and R is the natural resistance to change.
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
"Corporate executives are…accustomed to keeping up with the latest management fads through books, seminars, executive education. The danger with attempts at learning TPS through such means is that some readers have a tendency to think that if they've read about something they know it." John Shook from the Forward of The Toyota Way Fieldbook
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
From Isao Kato, Superfactory, 13 March, 2006, in Art Smalley's article "TPS versus Lean: Additional Perspectives":
"Clear awareness of problems and a very low tolerance for the current condition is the proper attitude and the right starting point for TPS or Lean."
There's ALOT of other good thinking in this piece, collected by Art Smalley (find it on his website), including Kato's comments on the origins of lean, jidoka (and how we are missing it in the U.S.), and the role of supervisors. This "starting point" quotation is just one favorite, really pithy bit.
-ALB
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Sign above my desk “The desire to do good work is seldom satisfied by just getting by”. Richard Sennett
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
“One thing you can’t recycle is wasted time ” Ohno
Like or Dislike:
8 
0
“Applying the Toyota Production System outside the shop floor can be done but this takes some creativity”, Fujio Cho
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
“it’s simple but it’s hard”
Like or Dislike:
0 
3
Without data its just an opinion!
Like or Dislike:
4 
0
What about Standard ?
This highest Standard you are able to implement is the lowest level that you will obtain
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
“Change is like heaven, everyone wants to do it, but not right now.”
“Culture eats strategy every time” from “Good to Great”.
“Change before you have to” Jack Welch.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing… layout, processes, and procedures.
Tom Peters
Excellent firms don’t believe in excellence – only in constant improvement and constant change.
Tom Peters
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Thanks to Andrew Bishop:
“90% of resistance is cautionary”
-Shigeo Shingo (attributed!)
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
This New York Times page has a number of great Toyota quotes.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Good, Better, Best
Don’t ever let it rest…
Until your good is better,
and your better is your best.
A camel’s hump is an ugly lump,
Often found in the zoo,
But uglier yet,
Is the hump we get,
From having too little to do.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
“Reducing costs is reducing quality.
Increasing quality is reducing costs”
(source unknown)
“We are good at applying open heart surgery, where a plaster would have sufficed.
And we are good at applying a plaster, where open heart surgery would be appropriate”
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Professor Elie Wiesel (on http://twitter.com/#!/eliewieselfdn):
“Computers have all the answers” the young man said. “Yes,” replied Professor Wiesel, “but they don’t know the questions.”
Photographer Ansel Adams (from his book: The Camera):
“… avoiding the common illusion that creative work depends on equipment alone …”
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
If you always do what you’ve always done. You always get what you’ve always got….
The last thing I say after a training course
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Every action is an opportunity to improve.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Whose quote is that, Ken?
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Mine, I use it with our in-house lean training.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0