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.
Update Nov 5 7:30 pm: Added an Addendum / Epilogue to the story at the end of the post Having received a Johnson & Johnson vaccine in March (at Dodger Stadium), I was happy to have the opportunity to get…
True Just-in-Time (JIT) is about short, stable supply chains, production leveling, built-in quality, and long-term thinking–not zero inventory. What many companies practiced instead was inventory cutting: offshoring, long lead times, brittle logistics, and decisions optimized for short-term financials. When disruptions…
In Episode 27, Mark and Jamie switch things up a bit with a morning recording of the show. While we could have just started our whiskey early, instead we decided to switch to a beverage that shares much of the…
This image — a huge container ship coming from a far-off land — does NOT represent the Lean and Toyota Production System notion of “Just in Time.” If you visit, for example, the Toyota factory in San Antonio, they have…
You might remember this Lean Blog Interviews podcast episode that I did last year with Keith Ingels from The Raymond Corporation, a Toyota Industries company: The theme of learning from mistakes came up, not surprisingly, so I also had Keith…
Scroll down for info, videos about Lucid Motors, how to subscribe, and more My guest for Episode #410 of the Lean Blog Interviews podcast is Keith Champion, Senior Manager of Operational Excellence at Lucid Motors, a new entrant in the…
In my recent podcast with Ritsuo Shingo, one topic was the history of the acronym “SMED” — it stands for “Single-Minute Exchange of Die,” referring to how long it takes to do a “die change” on a machine like a…
My previous post in this series: A Lean Guy Gets Vaccinated at Dodger Stadium On Saturday, March 6th, I had the opportunity to visit two mass vaccination sites that were each being run in partnership with the UC San Diego…
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! Healthcare – Creating Value for Patients It is said that “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. …
Jay Hodge taught the Toyota Production System at a General Motors stamping plant in Indiana — then got a call from Toyota asking him to come work for them. In this episode, he shares what he learned about lean culture,…
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! Healthcare – Creating Value for Patients Striving for zero harm is becoming more widely accepted in healthcare. Here, an…
My guest for Episode #400 is Jeffrey Liker, the retired University of Michigan professor who has recently released the second updated and revised version of his seminal book The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer. The new edition…