Tag Podcast – Toyota

Toyota Leadership Lessons from Lean Podcast Interviews

This archive features podcast interviews focused on Toyota leadership, the Toyota Production System (TPS), and the deeper management thinking behind Lean. These conversations go beyond tools to explore how Toyota develops people, aligns strategy, practices scientific thinking, and builds cultures of respect, learning, and continuous improvement.

Guests include former Toyota leaders, TPS coaches, researchers, authors, and executives who have worked closely with Toyota or applied Toyota principles in healthcare, manufacturing, construction, and technology. The emphasis is on how Lean really works at Toyota—and what leaders can learn without trying to “copy Toyota.”

David Meier, Lessons and Wisdom From Working at Toyota and Teaching Others

Back on the podcast for the fifth time is my friend David Meier, a Lean / TPS consultant who is a former Toyota leader at their plant in Georgetown, Kentucky. He's gotten into what's, perhaps, the most Kentucky of industries... distilling bourbon (and more).

I'll have two more podcast episodes where David and I talk about bourbon, whiskey, and continuous improvement for almost 90 minutes total there. Those episodes are coming soon.

Today is a shorter episode, where we catch up and hear more about what David has been doing since his last podcast appearance in 2010 when we talked about the challenges Toyota was facing then. In this episode, David drops a lot of knowledge and wisdom in a very short time -- thoughts on problem solving and how Lean thinking isn't easy for anybody, even if you're Japanese.

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