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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A Glimpse Back to 1995

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…

The New Style CEO?

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.”…

Gary Convis on Lean Leadership

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…

Toyota’s All-Out Drive To Stay Toyota

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…

NUMMI Employee Says Plant Hides Defects

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…

Book Review: How Toyota Became #1

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…

Maybe a little hansei would be in order.

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…

Toyota marks 50 years in U.S.

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…

How Toyota Became #1, and Will Again

I’ve mentioned this book before, coming out Nov 1, it’s called How Toyota Became #1: Leadership Lessons from the World’s Greatest Car Company. I had the exciting chance to have dinner tonight with the author, David Magee. I have, in…