Taiichi Ohno

83 Articles

The Toyota Production System by Taiichi Ohno, Chapter 1

By Jon Miller - January 8th, 2009

トヨタ生産方式―脱規模の経営をめざして   First published in 1978, Taiichi Ohno’s book, “The Toyota Production System: Aiming to Manage Free from Economies of Scale” is a classic. I have never r

Toyota’s Top Engineer on How to Develop Thinking People

By Jon Miller - August 4th, 2008

The August 4, 2008 Nikkei Business Online article titled Top Engineer Explains How Toyota Develops People (技術最高職が語る「トヨタはこう人を育てる」). The article is an interview with Nanpachi Hayashi, Toyota̵

The 5W1H of 5 Why

By Jon Miller - July 30th, 2008

There is a wise saying that “Knowledge means nothing without wisdom to profit by it.” It’s not who we are, who we know, or what we know… it’s what we do with that knowledge. We all have tremendous power to

practice over theory

The Toyota Production System is Practice, Not Theory

By Jon Miller - August 29th, 2007

Pete Abilla from the Shmula blog, recently commented on one of our blog articles Is the Theory of Constraints (TOC) a Theory? He said: During my short time at Toyota, I learned this lesson well: we were always encouraged to “try

The Essence of Shop Floor Management

By Jon Miller - August 20th, 2007

Chris Schrandt is a Gemba guy from Toyota who has wealth of experience in quality management and TPS. He had several great quotes during a problem solving class today, and this one about exposing problems struck me as particularly wort

Taiichi Ohno’s Revolution of Awareness

By Jon Miller - June 25th, 2007

Very early in the book Taiichi Ohno’s Workplace Management the architect of the Toyota Production System calls for “a revolution of awareness”. He proceeds to talk about misconceptions and false beliefs of various typ

Habituation , Sensitization and Being Yelled At By Taiichi Ohno

By Jon Miller - May 25th, 2007

Neuroplasticitiy is the ability of the human brain to rearrange its synaptic networks based on experience. This primarily affects the hippocampus, the region of the brain playing a key role in memory. In turn, memory affects behavior.

We Are Now Shipping Taiichi Ohno’s Workplace Management

By Jon Miller - April 30th, 2007

Sweet relief, the books have arrived. Thanks for your patience. We’ve set up a flow line to pack and ship, paced at about 90 seconds per order. Now don’t everybody order at once. We value heijunka around here.

The Value of Figuring It Out for Yourself

By Jon Miller - March 27th, 2007

There is a curious mention of Nissan purchasing an American automobile factory before World War II and moving it to Japan in chapter 21 of Taiichi Ohno’s Workplace Management: Before the war Nissan had purchased an American facto

How Can They Not Change?

By Jon Miller - January 16th, 2007

I would like to say thank you to everyone who has been placing advance orders for Taiichi Ohno’s Workplace Management, coming out in March 2007. Here is a sneak preview from the book, a short passage from Chapter 37: Follow the D

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