Why Toyota is Eliminating the Andon Cord from its Factories Mark Graban Aug 2, 2014 17 Blog If you clicked on my intentionally attention grabbing headline (or what might be a parody of those)... no, Toyota!-->…
Andon Cords at the Toyota Takaota Plant – It Doesn’t Come Naturally? Mark Graban Nov 13, 2012 16 Blog Yesterday, I was able to visit Toyota City as part of the Kaizen Institute tour I am a part of. Now, we weren't…
Toyota Was Helped, not Hampered, by TPS During the Pandemic Mark Graban Nov 22, 2022 0 Blog A culture of learning makes the difference, not "low inventory" Last year, I wrote a post that criticized!-->!-->!-->…
At Toyota: Mistakes are OK, as Long as We Learn; Culture and Psychological Safety Mark Graban Nov 17, 2022 1 Blog The book that I'm writing on learning from mistakes is not an academic research-driven project. My "field!-->…
Ken Pilone, the Author of Lean Leadership on a Napkin; Toyota Says… Mark Graban Aug 24, 2022 1 Interviews Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #455 of the Lean!-->!-->!-->!-->!-->!-->!-->!-->!-->!-->!-->…
Hide Oba Discusses His Legendary Father, Toyota’s Hajime Oba Mark Graban Jan 20, 2021 3 Interviews Joining me for Episode #397 is Hide Oba. His father was the late Hajime Oba, famous for his work at Toyota and the!-->…
Remembering Hajime Oba of Toyota and TSSC (1945-2020) Mark Graban Sep 26, 2020 0 Blog I've seen a number of people post on LinkedIn about the passing of the legendary "Mr. Oba" of Toyota (sometimes!-->…
Inside Toyota’s Takaoka #2 Line – Flexibility and Kaizen Mark Graban Jun 11, 2019 2 Audio This is an interesting article: Inside Toyota's Takaoka #2 Line: The Most Flexible Line In The World I!-->!-->!-->!-->!-->!-->!-->…
How Checklists and the “Andon Cord” Concept Can Help With Webinars Mark Graban Mar 6, 2019 0 Blog For years, Dr. Greg Jacobson and I have used checklists when prepping for and running our various webinars via!-->…
Toyota as a “People Development Company” Mark Graban Jan 14, 2019 29 Audio When I had the chance to go back to Japan last October with Honsha, there was a big focus on what the former!-->…
Podcast #314 – Skip Steward & Brandon Brown, on TWI & Kata in… Mark Graban Aug 15, 2018 0 Interviews Today I have two guests joining me for Episode #314 of the podcast. They are Skip Steward, the Chief Improvement…
The Academy Awards Add an Inspector, Practice “Andon Cord Pulls,”… Mark Graban Mar 7, 2018 0 Blog Tomorrow, my post will be about headlines that scream about ratings for The Oscars being "down from last year" or…
Podcast #300 – Tracey & Ernie Richardson, The Toyota Engagement… Mark Graban Feb 15, 2018 0 Interviews My guests for Episode #300 of the podcast are Tracey and Ernie Richardson, authors of the excellent book titled:…
The WSJ Overgeneralizes about The “Japanese Model,” Not All Companies… Mark Graban Feb 8, 2018 5 Blog Not all Japanese companies are the same. "Lean isn't easy" if you're a Japanese company. Toyota has created…
Toyota is Admired for Good Reason… But About Those Rotating Job… Mark Graban Jan 25, 2018 22 Blog There's much to admire about Toyota and even regular readers of this blog might throw the "fanboy" label at me. …
What We’re Looking Forward to Learning at the Toyota Plant Tour Mark Graban Jan 16, 2018 0 Blog Tomorrow, with the entire KaiNexus team, I'm going to visit the Toyota truck plant in San Antonio, the plant…
Did Toyota’s #Lean Mindsets & Practices Really Leave the (Now) Tesla… Mark Graban Dec 5, 2017 14 Blog Tesla builds cars in what used to be the NUMMI factory, a joint venture between Toyota and GM (which meant it was…
A Lesson From Toyota: Thanking Employees for Pointing Out Problems Mark Graban May 16, 2017 4 Audio Thanks to Lean Frontiers for sharing a story from Mike Hoseus on LinkedIn. Mike is, of course, co-author of the…