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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How About Partnership Instead?

New Detroit Woe: Makers of Parts Won’t Cut Prices – WSJ.com Wah, the latest complaint from the “Detroit Three” (formerly known as the “Big Three”) is that they are having trouble squeezing and stomping on their suppliers for lower prices.…

Seth Godin’s Bad Toyota Experience

Seth’s Blog: Good is not almost as good as great One of Toyota’s weak links, at least in the U.S., has been their dealer customer service. Jim Womack referred to this in our podcast last week and now business/marketing blogger…

Mississippi Learns The Toyota Way

djournal.com: Understanding Toyota Here’s an article from Mississippi, home of the next Toyota plant. A newspaper did a pretty good job with a brief history and explanation of the Toyota Way. One snippet: The company takes on problems first, he…

Oh No! "Lean for Dummies"

Tip of the hat to Jon Miller for finding this first. I have to chime in. I’m sure a lot of us have joked about it, a book called “Lean for Dummies.” Unfortunately, now it is here: Lean For Dummies.…

Toyota #2 on Fortune’s "Most Admired"

Toyota: America’s Best Car Company – March 19, 2007 Toyota is the only foreign-based company in the FORTUNE top 10 “America’s Most Admired Companies.” Good article, a few tidbits: Toyota decided to build a brand-new plant dedicated to this model…

More NPR Stories about Toyota

by Mike Lopez Yesterday and today, NPR’s Morning Edition had two short stories about Toyota. Yesterday, they highlighted the Georgetown Plant. Listen Here. Today’s story was an interview with Toyota US President, Jim Press. Listen Here. Please check out my…

Toyota’s Training Center

Toyota University Opens Admissions to Outsiders – WSJ.com (Gift Article) The headline is a bit misleading; it should say “Toyota Opens, Then Closes Admissions to Outsiders.” The WSJ article is about the Toyota University site in Gardenia CA. It had…

NPR Stories on New Toyota Plant

It’s official, that Toyota has selected a site near Tupelo, Mississippi for their next U.S. factory (Google News search here). Thanks to Pete Abilla, he sent links to three NPR stories from this morning. Mississippi Wins Battle for Toyota Plant…

UK Hospitals Gemba Walk the U.S.

I was sent a nice “gemba report” essay from a UK lean healthcare consultant, Andrew Castle. Andrew consults for the UK National Health Service and came with a group to tour two American sites: Toyota Industrial Equipment (forktruck manufacturing in…