GM Goes Big with Inventory
WSJ: At GM, Curbing Inventories Calls For Juggling Act From the article: At the end of December, GM had more than one million vehicles in stock in the U.S. That’s equivalent to about 41,000 vehicles for every point of its…
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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Toyota Goes Big…
Toyota bulks up Tundra, hoping to draw a crowd of buyers They go big, but stay lean (or they’re getting “leaner”). It’s been hard to avoid the Toyota ads while watching football, with their new full-sized trucks. Rather than patriotic…
LeanBlog Podcast #15 — Interview with Jim Huntzinger on “Training Within Industry”
LeanBlog Podcast #15 is a new discussion with a previous Podcast guest, Jim Huntzinger. Last time, we talked about the Lean Accounting Summit. This time, we’re talking about the renaissance of the “Training Within Industry” program. We’ll talk about the…
Mulally on Visiting "The Master"
Mulally: Visit to Toyota wasn’t overture to competitor I don’t disagree, but isn’t it a bit shocking to hear this from the head of Ford? It sure helps that CEO Mulally comes from outside the industry, eh? “…the former Boeing…
Toyota Company History
via Shmula.com Peter’s blog has reprinted an official Toyota company history on his website. Some of the numbers are outdated, but the text of it is interesting. Toyota is still writing their history, with rumors of yet another U.S. plant…
Toyota Roundup
A few articles about Toyota from the past week: Toyota boss let the customer drive (Globe and Mail) This was an interview with the outgoing President of Toyota Canada who, in typically Toyota style, focuses a lot on what the…
Book Review +: Profit Beyond Measure
By Jamie Flinchbaugh One of the most underrated voices in the “lean” world is Tom Johnson. I still regularly recommend his latest book, now 6 years old, Profit Beyond Measure. It’s a little hard for some to read, but the…
Ford’s Mulally meets with Toyota
NY Times: Ford and Toyota Chiefs Met in Tokyo MSNBC: Ford’s Mulally signals co-operation with Toyota In the NY Times today… apparently they fired up Mark Fields’ private jet and flew off to Japan last week to meet with Toyota…
More on Mulally’s First Impressions as the New CEO of Ford Motor
Here’s what jumped out at me from Friday’s WSJ articles on Alan Mulally: his “war room” and his “first impressions.” (both articles require paid WSJ subscriptions, I believe). The free version of the war room article is here. In the…
Mulally’s Early Lean Leadership at Ford
By Dan Markovitz, Markovitz Consulting(Mark’s note… Dan has been a unofficial, yet very welcome, contributor to the blog for a few weeks now. We should see him posting directly soon. But for now, here is a post he sent me…
More on Toyota’s Jump to #1
Not breaking news, but more article about Toyota’s expected leap to #1 in global auto sales in 2007. The NY Times and the International Herald Tribune both chimed in. All quotes below are from the IHT article. Toyota Motor said…
Lean and Green
Sir Richard Branson: Making the Skies Green – Enterprise Management – MSNBC.com Thanks to blog reader Marc for sending this my way. He points out the parallel between waste elimination (a typical lean concept) and the environmental push to reduce…
