Toyota is often cited as the inspiration for Lean, but its success is rooted in leadership behaviors, management systems, and a deep commitment to learning—not tools or slogans. This archive brings together blog posts, podcasts, and reflections on Toyota’s approach to quality, continuous improvement, psychological safety, and respect for people. Many of these posts explore what leaders outside Toyota often misunderstand—and what truly matters if they hope to learn from Toyota rather than copy it.
No. Toyota’s factories do not run a formal Six Sigma program, and they do not hand out belts. What Toyota does teach, broadly and without much ceremony, is basic quality control and statistical thinking, the kind of tools that predate…
Toyota Poised to Make Shift in North America – WSJ.com Interesting WSJ comment from this recent piece about planned management changes in North America. Jim Lentz, Toyota’s head of North American sales, said Wednesday it was “premature” to talk of…
A USA Today article offered a small but telling example of how Toyota applies root cause problem solving and kaizen in everyday work. Even in times of financial pressure–or when business is going well–this kind of employee-driven improvement shows what…
TL;DR: Ford wants to learn from Toyota without blindly copying–but Lean isn’t just about continuous improvement and efficiency. Without a deep commitment to respect for people and long-term thinking, copying Toyota’s tools won’t deliver Toyota’s results. Ford CEO Mulally shares…
I’ve always been a huge Simpsons fan, even if the show has gotten less funny in the past few years (flame away on that topic, if you must). The beginning of the this week’s episode made me chuckle a bit.…
ReviewJournal.com – Drive – Toyota empire was built on thread, not tread It’s surprising to see an article like this in the Las Vegas paper. This piece covers some of the early loom making history of the Toyoda family before…
Auto briefs | detnews.com | The Detroit News It’s too bad that they can’t talk directly to President Obama and introduce him to the Toyota Way and lean thinking… Toyota Motor Corp. ‘s top-ranking U.S. executive will appear next week…
SHIPPING, SHIPBUILDING AND OFFSHORE NEWS Toyota’s overproduction and inventory emergency (thanks to Jason for the tip): Toyota is currently renting a ship in the Swedish port of Malmö: to store 2,500 unsold autos. “It’s an emergency measure that we had…
TL;DR: Toyota stands apart because every employee is empowered to improve their work every day. That combination of respect for people, daily improvement, and visible learning creates better quality, safety, and performance–and it works just as well in healthcare as…
Taking the Wheel as Toyota Skids – NYTimes.com Toyota’s Cost Cutting Plan to Include Buyouts for Factory Workers Toyota famously has avoided layoffs of permanent employees since 1950 and they’ve also taken extraordinary measures to avoid them in recent downtimes.…
by Dan Markovitz In a refreshing change of pace for the auto industry, Akio Toyoda, who was just named as the new president of Toyota, did not ask for government loans. Nor, in his first public statements, did he express…
Report: Toyota considers cutting 1,000 jobs – USATODAY.com With the down economy, there had been much discussion about whether Toyota could continue it’s “no layoffs (of permanent employees)” streak going. That may end soon, sadly: Toyota is considering cutting more…