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.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Article I think it’s great that Toyota is investing in the U.S. and creating jobs here. That’s obviously a huge plus for the economy and I don’t blame that expansion for GM and Ford’s failures. Imagine how bleak…
This Is Broken – Hotel room warning I saw a large ad in the paper Friday that reminded me of this blog posting (link above). Be sure to click on the link to see a picture of what I’m talking…
Toyota sees hefty production-related cost cuts – MarketWatch It will be interesting to learn more about this approach as more is announced in the press. Note the shift from reducing PART costs to reducing SYSTEM costs. Seems like an illustration…
Focus: Toyota powers to the front – Sunday Times – Times Online From England, an article that gives a historical overview of Toyota with some tidbits I don’t recall hearing about before: 1) Having their own semiconductor fab: Toyota is…
Article Toyota plans on rolling out hybrid tech across all of their product lines by 2012. Now I can probably be accused of being a Toyota cheerleader, everything they do is great, etc. I have pointed out before, though, that…
The Cincinnati Post – Don’t blame Japan Here’s the latest column from Jim Womack (read my Q&A with him here). On Nov. 22 after a speech at the National Press Club, Ford Motor Co. Chairman Bill Ford told the media,…
When I worked at the GM Powertrain Livonia Engine Plant in the mid-1990s, the hallway display cases held posters celebrating something called “The Livonia Philosophy.” It read, in part, like this: “through trust, communication, and respect for the individual, we…
globeandmail.com : Toyota heads to Simcoe Toyota is investing $50M to build a parts plant in Ontario. This plant will supply parts to the current plant as well as the future assembly plant that Toyota is building near by. Look…
Chicago Tribune | Lafayette plant gets Toyota treatment “While General Motors and Ford are closing plants to reduce excess production capacity, Toyota will detail plans to build more cars in the U.S. at an underutilized Subaru plant in Lafayette, Ind.,…
Inside Bay Area – IBA – Tri-Valley Herald – Local News Here’s an article about the Toyota-GM joint venture plant known as NUMMI. I had a chance to visit NUMMI late last year and I published some of my “tour…
PittsburghLIVE.com Here’s an article that highlights some of Toyota’s innovation and success, including a brief description of a “u-shaped cell” for a casting process, which is pretty unheard of. This article also details some of Toyota’s financial results, which are…
Here is an outstanding profile of Gary Convis, the President of the Toyota Georgetown (KY) plant and the highest-ranking American executive in the company. I’ve written about Convis before and have seen him speak at a Lean conference. He really…
