Jim Womack on BBC World Business News
BBC World Service – Business – 5/05/2009 – Car Crash The BBC aired a revisiting of a story from 2007, I found this thanks to an alert on Twitter, a message from a guy named @KanuDawg said: Some guy named…
Tag Toyota
Toyota Thinking: Leadership, Systems, and Continuous Improvement
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.
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Does Toyota Use Six Sigma? (And No, Six Sigma Didn’t Start at Toyota)
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…
Online WSJ Comment from Toyota Person
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 Simple Toyota Root Cause Problem-Solving Example — From USA Today
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…
Ford Not “Blindly Copying” Toyota — Are They Missing Respect for People?
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…
The Simpsons Slams American Cars, Robots, or Roger Smith?
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.…
Toyota History Article in the Las Vegas Paper
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…
Toyota Exec to Meet with Obama Administration
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…
Just an Emergency
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…
What Sets Toyota Apart?
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…
Toyota’s Buyouts and New Leadership
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.…
Toyota Keeps its Eyes on the Customer
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…
