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The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer

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"This book will give you an understanding of what has made Toyota successful and some practical ideas that you can use to develop your own approach to business."--Gary Convis, Managing Office of Toyota

Fewer man-hours. Less inventory. The highest quality cars with the fewest defects of any competing manufacturer. In factories around the globe, Toyota consistently raises the bar for manufacturing, product development, and process excellence. The result is an amazing business success story: steadily taking market share from price-cutting competitors, earning far more profit than any other automaker, and winning the praise of business leaders worldwide.

The Toyota Way reveals the management principles behind Toyota's worldwide reputation for quality and reliability. Dr. Jeffrey Liker, a renowned authority on Toyota's Lean methods, explains how you can adopt these principles--known as the "Toyota Production System" or "Lean Production"--to improve the speed of your business processes, improve product and service quality, and cut costs, no matter what your industry.

Drawing on his extensive research on Toyota, Dr. Liker shares his insights into the foundational principles at work in the Toyota culture. He explains how the Toyota Production System evolved as a new paradigm of manufacturing excellence, transforming businesses across industries. You'll learn how Toyota fosters employee involvement at all levels, discover the difference between traditional process improvement and Toyota's Lean improvement, and learn why companies often think they are Lean--but aren't.

330 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2003

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About the author

Jeffrey K. Liker

127 books103 followers
Dr. Jeffrey K. Liker is Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan and principle of Optiprise, Inc. Dr. Liker has authored or co-authored over 75 articles and book chapters and nine books. He is author of the international best-seller, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer, McGraw-Hill, 2004 which speaks to the underlying philosophy and principles that drive Toyota's quality and efficiency-obsessed culture. The companion (with David Meier) The Toyota Way Fieldbook, McGraw Hill, 2005 details how companies can learn from the Toyota Way principles. His book with Jim Morgan, The Toyota Product Development System, Productivity Press, 2006, is the first that details the product development side of Toyota. He is doing a series of books focused on each of the 4Ps. The first books are (with David Meier), Toyota Talent: Developing exceptional people the Toyota Way (May, 2007) and (with Michael Hoseus) Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way (January, 2008). His articles and books have won eight Shingo Prizes for Research Excellence and The Toyota Way also won the 2005 Institute of Industrial Engineers Book of the Year Award and 2007 Sloan Industry Studies Book of the Year. He is a frequent keynote speaker and consultant. Recent clients include Hertz, Caterpillar, AMD, Android, Areva, Rio Tinto Mining, Tenneco Automotive, Jacksonville Naval Air Depot, US Airforce Material Command, Johnson Controls, Harley Davidson, Eaton, and Fujitsu Technical Services.

Source: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~liker

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 454 reviews
Profile Image for Alex Railean.
265 reviews40 followers
September 12, 2018
Notes for internal use:

- Have a manual process first, that allows you to understand better where automation is needed
- Treat colleagues as customers (provide output for them at the same specs as for the end customer)
- Kaisen - improve processes by a tiny bit, until all waste is removed
- Kaisen also encourages the delegation of process improvement (or proposal-generation) down from management to regular workers
- Kaisen also states that to improve something, you have to standardize it first (for reliable replicability?)
- Focus on quality rather than cost, this eventually leads to cost reduction too
- Muda - waste
1. Overproduction
2. Waiting
3. Unnecessary transport of goods or parts
4. Overprocessing or incorrect processing
5. Excess inventory. This also masks problems, like suboptimal supply chains, because the excess buffer dampens it
6. Unnecessary movement of employees
7. Defects - repairs, reworks, refactoring post release
8. Unused employment creativity
- Muri - overburden (people or equipment)
- This leads to safety issues and defects
- Mura - unevenness
- Unbalanced load, at times you are in zombie mode, other times you have not much to do
- Lack of balance means that you will have to keep supplies reserved to handle the worst case, whereas most of the time they will be unused (hence muda)
- Better to be slow and steady like a turtle, than fast and jerky like a rabbit
- Jidoka - stop the production line to fix issues and improve the process
- Think about what gets halted - no need to stop everything
-Every employee can pull the cord to do so, thus everyone is empowered and at the same time - responsible
- Cost of fix in development is much smaller than in production
- Autonomation - automation augmented with human intelligence
- Lexus rx330 has a 170 item checklist
- Institute a process improvement proposal mechanism, that employees can use to submit their ideas about improvements
- Visualize state, so no problems are hidden. Use dashboards to reflect the processes, so bottlenecks and weak spots are easy to see.
- Genshi genbutsu - go and see for yourself
- Nemawashi - Make decisions slowly, by consensus; implement rapidly
- Ask "why" 5 times
- Hansei - reflection. Think about the situation. When a mistake is made - it is important to see how the employee reflects upon it and how they present the lessons they've drawn from it
- Change the approach from "firefighting" to "process improvement"
Profile Image for Jan-Maat.
1,591 reviews2,165 followers
Read
September 14, 2016
Since reading this book every time I hear of Toyota having problems, a car recall or a design fault I smile wryly and wonder which of their principles they had forgotten.

That is unfair of me because the subtext of the book is that companies evolve and the Toyota story is about a company that moved from power looms to truck production to mass-produced cars responding to demand and aware of their business environment that they operated in. There is a little detail about how they prepare to launch in a new market by getting one of their employees to drive in a hire car around North -America - who marvels at the size of the drinks sold to drivers and notes the road conditions, before they set to designing a car for the North-American market - one that had many oversized cup holders.

This is a book about more than cars, the focus is on the cultural values of the company, in car production still inspired by the legacy of long time Toyota manager Taiichi Ohno, though his book Toyota Production System: Beyond large-scale production is much more interesting on the philosophy or spiritual side of the companies developments, this though is a good supplement on the history and nut and bolts.
Profile Image for ScienceOfSuccess.
110 reviews207 followers
September 14, 2018
Most people may don't know, but Toyota is considered "the autistic-genius" by car manufacturers.
They do everything differently, they stop producing lane when something is not ok, they don't produce X cars per hour, they have days when 0 cars are produced, just to be sure that every car going to the market doesn't have a defect they could fix.

This book summed up this method into 14 rules, that can be used in your house or work, but they may feel like you do something against yourself, probably against 'common sense' too.

If you watched "how its made" at least once, this book may blow your mind, and you will love it.
Profile Image for Ahmad Badghaish.
615 reviews179 followers
September 12, 2011

الكتاب ليس للمهندسين فقط أو ينحصر بالمهتمين بعالم السيارات

الكتاب إداري بشكل كبير

عجيب أسلوب تويوتا في الإدارة, لم أجد له مثيل في أي كتاب آخر

من المقولات الرائعة لأحد مسؤولي تويوتا : من الغباء أن تخبر موظفيك بأنهم مهمون لديك ثم تخاطر بحياتهم

قمة الإنتاجية مع تقديس الروح الإنسانية والكثير من القيم والمبادئ في هذا الكتاب

من القصص التي أعجبتني, واحدة مفادها : كيف تتوقع أن تعمل دون أن تتسخ يداك ؟ وأترك تفاصيل القصة لكم
Profile Image for Vikram Kalkura.
19 reviews2 followers
February 2, 2015
The Toyota way should be everyone's way. Great book with greater insights on how to be successful in your business along with how to make a profitable business. The insights can be applied not only for the automobile or transport industries but also for the software companies as well. TPS and Lean manufacturing has been created and developed by Toyota and now are used by many companies across the world. The book explains why Toyota has become one of the most successful company in the world and why Ford came in to inspect the TPS - Toyota production system. The 5s methodology - sort, straighten, shine, standardise and sustain is a great learning from this book. Love the JIT and how they stop the production as soon as they find a fault or defect in the production system. Also explains on how to minimal waste and improve efficiency. Also this book will make you understand why Japanese are the best as well. They just don't do things. They ask why and and then do it and do it to perfection. Overall a great book to read to be a successful manager and to have a better success at any venture that you start.
One thing that ponders me after reading this is why does Toyota recall some of the cars if they have followed the TPS and all the systems in place properly. What principle is at flaw here and that's why I have given 4 stars.
Profile Image for Bob Wallner.
361 reviews33 followers
October 4, 2018
The Toyota Way continues to be on my annual reread or re-listen to list. The 14 principles are universal and are as relevant today as they were when this was written.


The Toyota Way is one of those rare books that every time you read it, you learn something new, and going out in experimenting and trying to apply that new learning is exciting and rewarding.


Dr. Liker is careful to warn that although the 14 principles are a good blueprint to creating a lean organization, anyone who sets out and copies what Toyota has done, will fail. The learning is where companies grow.


The audiobook is extremely well narrated and provides small snippets of each of the 14 principles. For someone who spends almost 3 hours a day in his car, this book can we listen to in a day and a half.


As much as I enjoy the brevity of the audiobook, I really would love an unabridged audio version of the Toyota Way. Having read the book a couple times I know that there is a lot of substance that is not covered in the abridged audio.
1 review3 followers
March 24, 2009
Jeffrey Liker offers some very good insight into the stark differences that exist between management styles/business models, particularly in the Eastern and Western cultures.

It was a struggle for me to read between the case studies and, sometimes, the author seemed too preachy about the principles of the Toyota way. The case studies themselves were very interesting and add a lot of value to the content of the book.
Profile Image for Neil.
Author 1 book
May 25, 2009
Great insight into the Toyota Production System. My critique of it is that there is no discussion of drawbacks, if any. I'm skeptical of any methodology that isn't honest about its failings.
361 reviews70 followers
October 26, 2012
Toyota Industries Corporation was a Japanese maker of automatic looms (device used to weave cloth) when Kiichiro (eldest son of the founder) established the Toyota Motor Corporation. Toyota had was capital poor, resource poor, and the Japanese car market was small. Kiichiro devised a strategy of Operational Excellence, along the lines of Sam Walton's strategy for Wall Mart. Eventually, the strategy of operational excellence (elimination of waste) allowed resource poor Toyota to dominate it's resource rich western rivals. Ironically, Kiichiro was inspired by Henry Ford's book, which many Ford Motor Company managers and executives have not read.

Kiichiro's critical insight is similar to Eliyahu M. Goldratt's Theory of Constraints with it's focus on optimisation, especially as related to the factory floor. Typically factories want to keep all of their capital equipment busy, so that they can make good use of their investment. Each machine creates small piles of partially finished goods.

Kiichiro realised that more important than the capital and labor (opportunity cost) tied up in this work in process, the bigger problem is that all of these bits of intermediate inventory HIDE PROBLEMS. As if you've poured lots of grease into an engine. Even if the parts don't fit together and operate precisely, the engine will still work because it's heavily lubricated. Like the early days of Sam Walton, Kiichiro was capital poor, he couldn't compete using the same strategy as his advisories. By draining all of the lubrication (intermediate stages of inventory) out of the system, problems would constantly come to the surface. Each time a problem was located, it was corrected. The result was a machine that was built to constantly improve.

Kiichiro's strategy can be applied to more than just the assembly line. The crux of the issue is as simple as Obvious Adams - focus on your customer and see the world from their perspective. Fortunately, Kiichiro's strategy is more rigorous, offering specific tactics and tools.

Toyota has developed a set of concepts that dominate much of the manufacturing world. The core of the Toyota way is the focus on elimination of WASTE. Waste is typically represented as inventory. The entire product/service production/development system must be focused on the end consumer of the product, and from that consumer work backward to what must be produced. The result is Lean Manufacturing, or ultimately the Lean Enterprise. It's also the foundation for The Lean Startup and Lean Government.

Core principles of the Toyota Way (Lean) are:
* 現地現物 Genchi Benbutsu. Go and See. Managers must go to the source of the problem and see it with their own eyes, not trust the verbal or written reports of their subordinates.
* 改善 Kaizen. Improvement. No matter how good the process is, it can always be made more perfect. Build a system where problems easily come to the surface, and fix them quickly.
* 看板 Kanban. Signboard. Kanbans put a cap on the maximum amount of each type of inventory at a given time. Because kanbans represent inventory, and inventory is waste, a lean enterprise starts with Kanban's but eventually works to minimize and eliminate them.
* 無駄. Without Waste. Remove all Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Over Processing, Over Production and Defects from your production process. Also, not taking advantage of your employees latent skill is also a form of waste.
* 平準化. Heijunka. Production levelling. Peaks and troughs in production create waste. Sometimes you're idle. Sometimes everybody is working overtime. Enlist the sales and marketing team to help equalise demand. From sourcing of materials to sales of finished goods, ideally you want the process to work like a metronome. Constant.
* 行灯. Andon. Something like a Stop Sign that allows any employee to stop the system anytime that a production defect is located. It is always cheaper to fix a defect at the source than to allow the defect to progress through production and find it during QA. The power to stop the system also shows trust in employees and empowers them, helping them to be emotionally committed to the process.

That said, I think that any sort of "miracle elixir" that points out the "one true way" must be eyed skeptically. Toyota's success just as much the result of Japanese economic policy and luck as it is the "inevitable result" of Toyota's philosophy and discipline. If you're going to implement "The Toyota Way" in your own enterprise, I recommend that you read The Black Swan in parallel.

I think that this methodology is not suitable to every manufacturing company, but only to companies where the entire management and even a large percentage of the employees are really willing to strive for perfectionism over the long term. One Amazon reviewer from North Carolina recently wrote that: 'If you want your company to crash and burn then this is the book for you. Within a year of our company implement Jeffrey Liker's "Toyota Way" our company started losing customers and money. Now hundreds of people are out of work - all thanks to the "Toyota Way".'
Profile Image for Sambasivam Mani.
10 reviews24 followers
January 23, 2015
This book reveals several procedures used in the manufacturing company. 4P Model (Problem Solving, People and Partners, Process and Philosophy), 5S Methodology (Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardize and Sustain) and PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act or Deming Cycle). If anyone is willing to start a new manufacturing company they can use this book as a blue print. Helps us to learn some of the techniques used in Japan like Muri, Mura, Muda, Kanban, Heijunka, Jidoka and ohno and create eagerness to learn Japanese.
Profile Image for David.
27 reviews7 followers
December 9, 2013
I would recommend this book to anyone looking to optimize any type of organization. The further the organization is from manufacturing the more work required for the reader to apply, but there is an immense amount of wisdom there.

The application is universal because of how much Toyota focuses their attention on the intersection of the organizational culture and the operational systems.
Profile Image for Laurène.
10 reviews
April 18, 2013
I read this book for my MBA program. While it's a good reference for anyone who wants to become familiar with lean manufacturing, it is a horrible, dry, boring read. I'll keep it as a reference but will dread having to ever open it again!
Profile Image for Ben O’Brien.
15 reviews1 follower
January 19, 2023
This book provides a really solid overview of the principles used by Toyota which can be applied to any business. Liker breaks down the fundamentals in an easy to understand way and follows with cases from Toyota and other organizations looking to apply similar lean techniques.
Profile Image for Jennifer Choisser.
107 reviews1 follower
January 3, 2022
This book is an overview of lean production a concept foreign to me, a stay at home mother.

“This ‘Toyota Way’ mindset could be applied to my home life”, was the recurring thought I had reading the text. I was then struck with the epiphany Marie Kondo must have taken a page out of the Toyota Production System to produce the domestic version of this book, “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up”!

The greatest take away from this book is the three M’s: Muda, Mura, and Muri.

From The Lean Way Blog by Doanh Do:


Muda (無駄)
Muda means wastefulness, uselessness and futility, which is contradicting value-addition. Value-added work is a process that adds value to the product or service that the customer is willing to pay for. There are two types of Muda, Type 1 and Type 2. Muda Type 1 includes non-value-added activities in the processes that are necessary for the end customer. For example, inspection and safety testing does not directly add value to the final product; however, they are necessary activities to ensure a safe product for customers. Muda Type 2 includes non-value added activities in the processes, but these activities are unnecessary for the customer. As a result, Muda Type 2 should be eliminated.

There are seven categories of waste under Muda Type 2 that follow the abbreviation TIMWOOD. The seven wastes are (1) Transport i.e. excess movement of product, (2) Inventory i.e. stocks of goods and raw materials, (3) Motion i.e. excess movement of machine or people, (4) Waiting, (5) Overproduction, (6) Over-processing, and (7) Defects.

Mura (斑)
Mura means unevenness, non-uniformity, and irregularity. Mura is the reason for the existence of any of the seven wastes. In other words, Mura drives and leads to Muda. For example, in a manufacturing line, products need to pass through several workstations during the assembly process. When the capacity of one station is greater than the other stations, you will see an accumulation of waste in the form of overproduction, waiting, etc. The goal of a Lean production system is to level out the workload so that there is no unevenness or waste accumulation.

Mura can be avoided through the Just-In-Time ‘Kanban’ systems and other pull-based strategies that limits overproduction and excess inventory. The key concept of a Just-In-Time system is delivering and producing the right part, at the right amount, and at the right time.



Muri (無理)

Muri means overburden, beyond one’s power, excessiveness, impossible or unreasonableness. Muri can result from Mura and in some cases be caused by excessive removal of Muda (waste) from the process. Muri also exists when machines or operators are utilized for more than 100% capability to complete a task or in an unsustainable way. Muri over a period of time can result in employee absenteeism, illness, and breakdowns of machines. Standardize work can help avoid Muri by designing the work processes to evenly distribute the workload and not overburden any particular employee or equipment.



I have finished this book with further appreciation for the Toyota family, Japanese culture, and a sparked interest in the Lean Manufacturing Process.
172 reviews2 followers
September 1, 2023
Well to start with, it took so long for me to complete the book, too long and then long enough to write the review too.
I am IT professional and Toyota means two things to me, Cars and Kanban. So I know a little about this company before I picked this book, and frankly that was a reason for me to pick it too. I was wondering I would read a lot about cars and the way the company over came crisis like typical natural disasters in Japan and then the crisis like international car manufacturers competition, along with that on how Kanban was born, brought up at Toyota.
Well not far from my expectations but very far from my understanding, this company has emerged from ground, it was so wonderful to learn about the Toyota family and their legacy. As a kid, Toyota started understanding the needs of people around and started working on making things easy for his family and other villagers. Weaver was their primary source of food and it included heavy labour, this is where the need for some tools was realized.
The first invention of Toyota was the automated weaving machine, which was not at all in shape if we see what is made today. But he never stopped, Toyota were the first to invent the completely automated weaving machine which could stop itself even when one of its hundreds threads is broken, that was a huge success. Over the generations, their family has moved into many new inventions and markets, one of them was automobiles.
They have an unique production system called, TPS – Toyota Production System, which eventually became Kanban after decades. But the way they learnt it and applied it was something one has to learn. It is still the same system that is followed in all the Toyota plants all over the world. It has such discipline and order that their success formulae has, at core remained the same and has only topped up as the time passed.
Some of the terms, or say approaches that they have are so wonderful like the Genchi Gembutsa, meaning go to the place where the actual issue is and understand, resolve. Similar is the term Gimba, which me the actual ground or place of work or problem.
Well this list of terms can go on and so are the wonderful points in the book. I liked the TPS and the way it is approached across the plants, across the globe and over the decades. Is it really hard to apply TPS, well if we heart fully understand and apply it isn’t but that is really difficult to follow so.
If I need to keep my review short, I recommend people to take time and read the book, though not all of it is relevant to everyone but there sure are some wonderful things on the book to learn, especially about the way Toyota has survived all these years. To me the book was a lot of learning and some of it was surely boring. So don’t blame me if you get bored too.
Profile Image for zoagli.
392 reviews3 followers
November 15, 2023
It‘s unfair to rate such a seminal book 20 years after its first publication by today’s standards, but I can only recommend this book to absolute novices. To me, this seems like such basic knowledge. If you want something more practical, try the same author’s “The Toyota Way to Service Excellence.” But before you read that, there are a few things you need to know about Lean a.k.a. "The Toyota Way":

"The Toyota Way" is a culture, a path and a commitment, not a set of tools to apply to a problem. The key concept is Kaizen: a commitment to strive for improvement continuously. This requires continuous learning in an environment that embraces change and strives to get quality right the first time. The goal is one-piece flow by linking processes so tightly that problems cannot hide in inventory or in queues.

Create flow by following these steps:
- Determine who the customer is and what the customer needs.
- Separate processes the continually recur from one-time processes that are unique.
- For repetitive processes, creatively apply the Toyota Way principles: Observe the source: Go see for yourself and ask “why” over and over until you understand it. Chart the flow to determine which activities are value-added and which are not. Use visual controls to see the work-in-process, so that no activities are hidden. Use ‘pull’ systems to avoid overproduction. Level the workload: Output should not vary from day to day, because production swings according to varying demand are too inefficient. Eliminate waste, including overproduction, delay, unneeded transport, overprocessing, excess inventory, unproductive movement, defects and unused employee creativity.
- Once you have a working model, expand it to your less repetitive processes.

The Toyota Way proves many counter-intuitive conclusions:
- Apply a long-term philosophy even if your short-term goals suffer as a result. Your company’s primary mission is to generate value for your customers and for society at large.
- Develop people and teams: To have excellent teams, you need excellent team members. Making everyone work faster leads to overproduction and will actually increase costs.
- Use only well-proven technology, and adopt new technology only if it supports your people, your processes or your values.
- Know when it is better to use people: Using manual processes is often a better idea than using IT, even when automation is available. While automation might reduce your headcount, people are a very flexible resource.
Profile Image for Brian .
297 reviews
September 9, 2009
This book took me on a much longer journey than expected. I found it to be so packed with information that it took a while to wade through. Coming from a church leadership background instead of a manufacturing background meant that I did not have some of the prerequisites that the book's intended audience might have.

For me personally, Part 1 (The World-Class Power of the Toyota Way) was an interesting look into the changing world of manufacturing and lean production. It has helped me appreciate where some of my congregants are coming from in the workday lives, but it did not strike me as deeply as I had hoped from a leadership standpoint. That came in Part 2.

I'd recommend reading Part 2 in its entirety after skimming Part 1. Part 2 (The Business Principles of The Toyota Way) offered immediately applicable leadership paradigms. Like many leadership guides, these paradigms are not necessarily new, but seeing them in action is important. These are what I found most helpful:

1. Develop leadership from the inside with people who know your organization.
2. Focus on long-term goals at the expense of short-term.
3. Respect and challenge your extended network to benefit them and your organization.

Heijunka- Level Out the Workload
Genchi Genbutsu: Go and See for Yourself
Hansei: Relentless Reflection
Kaizen: Continuous Improvement

So, why would a pastor read this? Many-- all actually-- of Toyota's leadership principles put people first. In other word's they love their neighbors as themselves. I'm not suggesting that Toyota is a Christian or even Biblical company, but it is refreshing to me to see a Global Corporation that has not sacrificed the health of its workers or community for shareholders.

Toyota takes a long-term approach and values face-to-face relationships. Its managers do not follow a typical executive "top-down" approach. They have grease on their hands, acknowledge mistakes (asking 5-whys), and know their company inside and out.

Many pastors would do well to consider the long term goals of the Kingdom and the Church ahead of their own ambition. They would find insight by putting relationships ahead of tasks, and they would empower their congregations by willing to acknowledge mistakes while suggesting steps for correction. Whether or not they would further their ministry by driving a Toyota is open for debate.
1 review
November 20, 2007
In factories around the world, Toyota consistently makes the highest-quality cars with the fewest defects of any competing manufacturer, while using fewer man-hours, less on-hand inventory, and half the floor space of its competitors. The Toyota Way is the first book for a general audience that explains the management principles and business philosophy behind Toyota's worldwide reputation for quality and reliability.

The fourteen management principles of the Toyota Way create the ideal environment for implementing Lean techniques and tools. Dr. Liker explains each key principle with detailed, examples from Toyota and other Lean companies on how to:

foster an atmosphere of continuous improvement and learning,
create continuous process "flow" to unearth problems,
satisfy customers (and eliminate waste at the same time),
grow your leaders rather than purchase them,
get quality right the first time,
grow together with your suppliers and partners for mutual benefit.

Dr. Liker shows the Toyota Way in action, then outlines how to apply the Toyota Way in your organisation, with examples
of how other companies have rebuilt their culture to create a Lean, learning enterprise. The Toyota Way is an inspiring
guide to taking the steps necessary to emulate Toyota's remarkable success.
Profile Image for HBalikov.
1,867 reviews747 followers
July 12, 2014
"Toyota has sought harmony between people, society, and the global environment, as well as the sustainable development of society, through manufacturing." http://www.toyota.com.bh/pages/vision...

Liker focuses on the management principles that have guided this post-WW II success story. Not very critical, but well-organized and highly useful to anyone who wants to study Toyota's path. I found the parts dealing with how Toyota emphasizes that it is a "learning organization" particularly insightful, highlighting how experience is integrated by taking necessary corrective actions and distributing broadly the knowledge of each experience.
Profile Image for TarasProkopyuk.
686 reviews98 followers
September 12, 2013
Жаль, что в своё время недооценил данную бизнес книгу, что отложил в её в длинный ящик. Я считал, что книга в основном о том как добиться высокой эффективности в производстве. Но я и не предполагал, что она охватывает практически все принципы ведения бизнеса и что они столь высоких стандартов.

Это та книга без которой в современном мире трудно построить поистине великий бизнес. И ещё она относится к тем работам к которые просто обязательно нужно время от времени возвращаться и перечитывать её снова и снова.
Profile Image for Marcin Zaremba.
Author 6 books103 followers
July 16, 2016
Mimo kilku anachroniczności (Internet jako nowość w zarządzaniu) to same zasady trzymają się mocno. W gruncie rzeczy ta książka wkurza, bo jedną z podstawowych zasad jest eliminacja "waste", wszystkiego co nie jest potrzebne do tworzenia wartości. Odpowiednio długie słuchanie (korzystałem z audiobooka) powoduje, że widzi się ten waste wszędzie: nie tylko w swojej pracy, ale także pracy innych. Jest jedna zasada, która rezonuje ze mną bardzo mocno: "metoda dojścia do decyzji jest równie ważna jak sama decyzja".

Uwaga: audiobook jest skrócony, warto dodatkowo sięgnąć po wersję wizualną
Profile Image for Brian.
37 reviews8 followers
April 22, 2008
This book was my formal introduction to Lean and the Toyota Production System (TPS). I have utilized some Lean tools before when I was a business analyst (although I did not know the tools were Lean at the time!) but this book provides tremendous depth past my experience. I enjoyed the learning all of the principles at Toyota, especially the emphasis on people. I highly recommend this book to anybody interested in learning about this topic.
Profile Image for Yulya Roesdy.
52 reviews6 followers
June 30, 2011
The Toyota Way by Jeffrey K Liker gives a common sense approach to Business Process Improvements. It's a good start for everybody interested in lean management and lean production. This book goes into depth on several concepts that make the Toyota Way different from most western companies. It will definitely change the way you see business and management.
-Yulya Roesdy-
Profile Image for Andreea Pausan.
574 reviews6 followers
June 17, 2014
In a world of mass production that is continuously and rapidly changing, Toyota managed to create a lean production system based on family values, excellence, continuous improvement, leadership and little waste. The 14 principles are explained in detail, with examples and clarification. Great book, great lessons to be learned and applied by all.
18 reviews2 followers
Currently reading
June 11, 2011
Reading this book because one of my hospital clients wishes to combine their approach to engagement and Lean/Six Sigma. I've purchased 4 books on this topic and this might be the best one on this dual approach. You can't maximize operational efficiency at the expense of solid people practices.
Profile Image for Alexander.
1 review
October 25, 2017
Нудна книга. Цікавими були хіба що розділи про створення Lexus та Prius.
Profile Image for Josh.
7 reviews1 follower
January 26, 2021
Use visual control so no problems are hidden... indeed!
Profile Image for Winda.
99 reviews2 followers
November 14, 2021
Inspiring and practical. I would recommend this book to all factory stakeholders, or anyone really, who's looking to be inspired and lead a more "effective life".

The author, Jeffrey Liker, spent 20 years studying "The Toyota Way" to help the struggling U.S. automobile industry, back in the late 20th century. In this book, Liker went back to the root of it all... How Sakichi Toyoda -- an ordinary farm boy who grew up learning carpentry from his father -- started The Toyoda Automatic Loom Works and later inspired his son to pass down this innovative spirit to create Toyota -- one of the largest automakers in the World. It also discussed, among many things: How Toyota not only survived but grew, during the trying War times, when they would've been forgiven if they failed; How they eventually surpassed U.S and European automobile industry against all odds (in terms of safety rating, sales, effectiveness, etc); How they break through limits when inventing Lexus and Prius; and How they transformed and influenced its partners and even sometimes, competitors, to grow with them.

"The Toyota Way" -- the build-in philosophy of the company inspired by its founders, and later cemented by Toyota's engineering genius Taiichi Ohno, is the secret sauce behind Toyota's success. In this book, Liker tried to describe the underlying philosophy of The Toyota Way and provided a list of principles and steps that we can try to emulate if we want to adopt "a similar culture" within our own workplaces/ lives. It basically involves building a "lean" company that reduces waste, embraces challenge, continuously innovates and problem-solves. Also, it's about building a learning enterprise that invests in people and believes in the value of long-term investment despite short-term loss.

Great change can be started by the one person but it can only be sustained when everyone buys into the idea. The Toyota Way is embraced by all Toyota staffs (and even suppliers) like a religion. This level of dedication and commitment is what makes all Toyota's achievements possible.

I am deeply inspired and impressed. I also have a newfound respect and trust in Toyota's products. I'm now officially, a hard core fan of Toyota!
Profile Image for Ramesh Ruthrasekar.
54 reviews1 follower
March 31, 2022
Bible for Lean practitioners

+ Mr. Liker's dedication to figure out a constructive culture to transfer to the rest of the world is highly appreciated
+ The 2nd Edition details more on problem solving as in scientific thinking which as a Practitioner I can say as the single most Important competency for driving efficiency
+ Insights into work groups, SDCA daily management and quality circles, principles 5 & 13 were great

- His admiration towards Toyota borderline tends towards biased glorification. Not all is Gold. I would challenge him to find inefficiencies. I'm a big Fan of Toyota still I see a high room for improvement. As an example the weight of debt per employee in Toyota is more than their productivity I.e. revenue per employee. Mitsubishi, Suzuki, Fiat Chrysler, Honda, Maruti are better performers here.
- The whole chapter on Tesla vs Toyota taking a defence towards Toyota Was unnecessary.

General comments
*Myself coming from the east, the socio-economic & cultural elements seem to be totally underestimated. E.g. Insistence on Standardized work may have been their only option to extract work from uneducated labor which incidentally brought better productivity than employing qualified labor with no standard work. Transferring the practices 1:1 in the individuslistic West may not function. Rather holding the policies I.e. Toyota policy in sequence of having safety first, quality, volume & profit taking and developing/ customizing the practices/tools to reach the same through a western mindset may work better. A detailed research here might be a breakthrough book.

*Toyota seems to have a no compromise policy. Either strict insistence on quality I.e. zero compromise that even inventory building is taken serious as it might affect quality and less because it binds capital. Or vice versa, the capital borrowing might not be as easy that any kind of inventory building is prohibited. Which of it is true? Western companies seems to have neither of the anchors!

Notes on 14 principles
1. Long term Systems thinking over short term financial goals: "As for the immediate crisis the priorities are the same we always have at Toyota first safety 2nd quality 3rd volume and 4th profit making"
2. Striving for one piece flow. "Companion is developing in people at work site a scientific mindset to solve problems as they surface"
3. Pull where you can. JIT. "Kanban is something you strive to get rid of not to be proud of"
4. Heijunka: Level the production for maximum quality: Muda (7 wastes), Mura (unbalanced), Muri (Overburden people & equipment- Overtime and no to time for preventive maintenance): Importance of reducing setup time to increase flexibility and balancing the lines to takt time. Thereby importance of pacemakers.
5. Standardized work: about takt time, sequence and Standardized stock worker needs. Elaborate job breakdown sheets for training workers. Link to SDCA in principle 13. "When standards become but a tool owned by those who perform the work bureaucracy turns from coercing to enabling"
6. Jidoka: In station quality preventing problems from being passed down-the-line. Every team member has the responsibility to stop the line every time when they see something that is out of standard. That's how we put the responsibility for quality in the hands of our team members. Andon: Unless you have people who quickly identify problems and a problem solving process that they follow there is no point in spending money on fancy technology.
7. Visual control: Hear it you remember 10% see it you will remember 65%. 5S. It is about the visual control of stable process so when there are deviations they will become immediately apparent. Obeya- war rooms for visual project management
8. Automation with people: Flexibility over fixed costs is the attitude towards Automation. A predictive maintenance has higher value as it assists people in faster communication. Automation through kaizen than full scale setup from the beginning. Real time and continuous information to acclerate and amplify kaizen.
9. Grow leaders: Before we build cars we build people. Building a learning organisation. Leaders as coach. Leader standard work, yes. But combine it with Genchi Gebutsu For an accurate grasp of situation. Dig deep, Go and search, Listen, use facts and data. This is the foundation for scientific thinking.
10. Power of team members and work groups: The upside down organisation chart where workers are team members led by team leaders forming work groups. Maximum number of kaizen happen on this level. This group is led by a group leader who also acts as coach. Clear A3 per task defined per role. Extrinsic rewards can be powerful when creative thinking is not required. Thereby Toyota focuses on job security and compensation on factory as a hole and less based on individual performance. Priority over flex time to include preventive maintenance: no 24*7 shift model.
11. Inclusive to suppliers/ Value chain partners in TPS: Toyota challenges suppliers with perfect delivery of parts and aggressive cost targets. Ultimate goal is to build a stable learning enterprice across the value chain. Example 200 suppliers self organising to start a production within two days when just in time failed due to a fire accident.
12. PDCA to meet challenges: The idea is slow thinking. Problem solving requires identifying root cause rather than source. The root cause lies hidden beyond the source. Goal is to grasp the situation through genba and data. Apply then PDCA. Plan as in clarify and break down the problem, RCA, develop countermeasures I.e. to set deviation back to standard. Do, Check as in monitor and Act as in control. Link to KATA. Quality circle to support problem solving involving workers in after hours. Managers should coach and not fix. Managers as train the trainer as the key for transformation
13. Aligned goals at all levels: Hoshin Kanri & Nemawashi. SDCA bottom up & PDCA top down. Vidion, strategy, 1-3/5 year breakthrough objectives. Value stream current state and future state. Top level strives for 5 year goal, value stream level strives for one year goal and team members strive/kaizen for daily SDCA. Use A3 to make thinking visible. Importance of Nemawashi I.e. consensus as in including all opinions. Yokoten - striving to learn out of will. Superlative of best practice sharing. Awesome graph demonstrating combined effect of SDCA & PDCA. Hansei cycles to reflect on weaknesses
14. Importance of strategy: radar chart with human relations, internal processes, open systems & rational goals. Toyota vs Tesla
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