djournal.com: Understanding Toyota
Here's an article from Mississippi, home of the next Toyota plant. A newspaper did a pretty good job with a brief history and explanation of the Toyota Way.
One snippet:
The company takes on problems first, he said, one of the key points made by the manufacturer during its employee orientations. The company doesn't focus so much on bureaucracy as do so many others, Magee said. Instead, it chooses to empower its employees by having them think critically and offer constructive criticism on how to make the product better.
“It's always problems first,” he said, “unlike our Friday meetings when we like to gather around the table and tell what we did best.”
“Problems first.” That's refreshing. Most organizations I've been a part of, even though we were working on Lean, still hadn't yet embraced the idea of problems first. Most organizations still tend, I believe, to want to hide or make excuses for problems.
“No problems is problem” goes the famous Toyota quote.
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Mark Graban
Mark Graban is an internationally-recognized consultant, author, and professional speaker who has worked in healthcare, manufacturing, and startups. He is author of the Shingo Award-winning books Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, as well as The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen. His most recent book is the anthology Practicing Lean that benefits the Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation, where Mark is a board member. Mark is also a Senior Advisor to the technology company KaiNexus. His latest book has been released as an "in-progress" book, titled Measures of Success.