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.
A New Year’s Greeting from Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe Interesting message. Does anyone have comparisons of any “year ahead” messages from other automakers? It’s refreshing to read something from an auto executive who isn’t whining, making excuses, or blaming outside…
U.S. Big Three Trail Japan in Productivity – New York Times Sometimes, in the course of my reading and research, I stumble across something interesting in the NY Times archives. Keep in mind this is from 1995: The Big Three…
Two article links, sent to me by a few readers: Court: Toyota Employee Was Worked to Death Widow of Toyota worker questions labor practices At a first quick read, this seems like a “Japan problem” more so than a “Toyota…
C.E.O. Evolution Phase 3 – New York Times In this quote: Mr. [X] “is disarmingly unpretentious,” he added. “…he towers over other C.E.O.’s when it comes to putting in people stronger than himself or his ability to talk about setbacks.”…
Role of Management in a Lean Manufacturing Environment If you want to learn about the Toyota style of leading people, one of the best sources is Gary Convis. Here is a link to a column written directly by him. For…
Business Week Article I have a number of “Toyota is struggling” articles in the backlog to work through. Maybe I’ll dump the rest of those later in a single post. This was a good article from BusinessWeek (actually a weekly…
Whistleblower says defects hidden at Toyota-GM Calif. plant Ironically enough, while on the topic of not counting defects (the TSA), this disturbing story was in the Detroit News today. A 23-year employee, a quality inspector, has filed a lawsuit claiming…
I know many of you won’t have access to this article from the latest Industrial Engineer magazine (from the Institute of Industrial Engineers) but I had to comment on it anyway. The piece, by Richard Shonberger, has the headline “Faltering…
Review By Mike Gardner, TPM Blog Name of the Book: How Toyota Became #1 Author: David Magee Publication Date: 2007 Book description: David Magee interviewed current and former Toyota executives in the United States and Japan in order to understand…
by Dan Markovitz Without realizing it, James B. Stewart, the SmartMoney columnist for the Wall Street Journal, touched on the value and power of hansei (reflection) in yesterday’s piece (available for free here). Commenting on the recent ouster of Merrill…
How GM Handles a Hit: Build Fewer – WSJ.comWelcome to new readers from the MoneyCentral MSN blog. To explore more about “Lean,” visit the main page of my blog or click on “What is Lean?” in the left column. The…
This month marks a pretty significant milestone, 50 years since Toyota first started selling cars in the U.S. A collection of articles:Toyota marks 50 years in U.S. Dallas Morning News It’s important to keep in mind that Toyota was hardly…