Tag: Japan

Monday was the first day of my fifth Lean study trip to Japan. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to once again visit a Toyota...

This is an interesting article: Inside Toyota's Takaoka #2 Line: The Most Flexible Line In The World I had a chance to visit the 'Takaoka #1"...

Joining me today for Episode #330 of the podcast is Christoph Roser, a professor of production management at the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences...

When I had the chance to go back to Japan last October with Honsha, there was a big focus on what the former Toyota...

I had a great time and learned so much as a guest of Honsha and their Executive Development Mission trip to Japan in October....

Joining me for the fourth time, here for Episode #326 of the podcast, is my friend and colleague Katie Anderson, a leadership coach, Lean consultant, speaker and writer from the San Francisco area. Hear our previous podcasts about visiting and living in Japan. Today, we're talking about a number of topics related to learning and collaboration: Her upcoming book with Isao Yoshino, the local San Francisco Bay area AME consortium that she is leading, her next trip to Japan (which you can join), and more. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as we did.

When I got back from Japan a few weeks back, somebody at a hospital client of mine asked me: "Why go back to Japan again? Haven't you been there, done that?" Why go back to Japan? Why not go back? I learn something new and have great experiences each time and my recent opportunity to tag along with Honsha was no exception.

Today, I'm off to Japan for a week, so I might be away from the blog. I do have a podcast scheduled for release on Tuesday.

In the third and final part of this series, I share more about how Toyota teaches about TPS and TQM... and how they are sharing that approach with doctors and hospitals.

Last week, I wrote about the influence of Total Quality Management (TQM) on Toyota -- in the past and the present, in Japan and beyond. Today, to follow up on that, I'm going to share some excerpts from some material that was shared by a Toyota leader who presented at a hospital I visited earlier this year as part of the Kaizen Institute-organized Japan trip.

I'm very excited to be leaving for Japan for another study trip in just over a month. This will be my second trip this year, this time with Honsha, after previous (and hopefully future) trips organized by Kaizen Institute. Even though the previous tours have been focused on Toyota, as well as Lean and Kaizen in various organizations, one common thread is Total Quality Management, or TQM. In many Japanese organizations, TQM has been a solid foundation of practice for two or three decades, where it tended to be a fad here in the U.S., as I've blogged about:

I'm excited to share two interesting opportunities to further our learning about Lean. One is a Texas-based event in September and the other is Japan-based, in October.