TL;DR: A Toyota tour guide at the Tsutsumi plant once added a small hook to a catwalk railing because she didn’t like setting her bag down. Her manager approved it. A colleague installed it. No ROI analysis was required. That single example reveals more about how kaizen actually works at Toyota than most training programs do — and explains why most “kaizen programs” outside Toyota stall. The most useful thing I’ve ever learned about kaizen … Continue reading What One Toyota Tour Guide Taught Me About Real Kaizen