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.
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…
Business Week Article Here is a new article from Business Week, which also focuses on the upcoming book How Toyota Became #1: Leadership Lessons from the World’s Greatest Car Company. I’m going to have a chance to meet the author,…
With our Lean efforts, it’s always good to ask, are we: Copying Toyota’s past methods, Copying Toyota’s current methods OR Copying Toyota’s thought process and concepts If you’re a regular Lean Blog reader, you’ll know that I’d argue for doing…
Unbeaten Patriots see room for improvement – NFL – Yahoo! Sports The above headline blew me away this morning. The Patriots have basically been perfect this year. Tom Brady is completing 80% of his passes. They’ve won every game by…
I think I’ve mentioned this resource before, the free content that is online in Google Books. Even though I own Taiichi Ohno’s book Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production, but it so much easier to search the book online. You…
I was just contacted this morning by David Magee, the author of the upcoming book How Toyota Became #1: Leadership Lessons from the World’s Greatest Car Company I’m hoping to do a Podcast interview with David and I should be…
Listen: LeanBlog Podcast #31 is a discussion with David Meier, most recently the co-author of the book Toyota Talent, written with Dr. Jeffrey Liker. In this podcast, we discuss the topics from Toyota Talent, including standardized work and how to…
Autoblog.com report This is surprising — Toyota’s top U.S. executive, Jim Press, who had been the first American named as a Toyota corporate director, is leaving to take a top sales and marketing job at Chrysler. Does this mean Tom…
by Dan Markovitz This blog has commented (here and here) on the WSJ’s rush to predict the folly of just-in-time manufacturing in the wake of the earthquake last week that crippled Japanese auto production. (“Blame it on kanban, the just-in-time…
Forbes.com – Partial Production to Start Tuesday Reuters Article – Toyota to Resume Full Production Wednesday What do the Chicken Littles at the WSJ have to say now? After the earthquake in Japan last week, the WSJ ran a predictable…
A Key Strategy of Japan’s Car Makers Backfires – WSJ.com Be sure to read the comments for an excellent story from Matthew May about the 1997 Toyota situation and parallels to today. I predicted it on Wednesday, that the Japan…
Yahoo! News Updated: No real updates in the news, maybe we’ll learn more in the morning… but a few more thoughts of mine added below. Toyota (as well as other Japanese automakers, including Nissan) is having to shut down a…
