Taiichi Ohno Archives | Page 6 of 9

Gemba Keiei by Taiichi Ohno, Chapter 29: Become a Reliable Boss

By Jon Miller - August 4th, 2006

“I never get angry at the workers. However, I will get very angry at supervisors and above.” Some people say that Taiichi Ohno was not a very nice man. Ohno had a reputation for being very tough on his students, and some ev

Gemba Keiei by Taiichi Ohno, Chapter 28: Wits Don’t Work Until You Feel the Squeeze

By Jon Miller - July 17th, 2006

“When I’m sitting in the board room I have no idea what’s happening on the gemba.” Taiichi Ohno begins, and proceeds to tell the story of what would happen when he was sitting in another office, Production Control. When his eye

Words of Taiichi Ohno Sensei, Part 3: The Top 8 Pearls of Wisdom on Kaizen

By Jon Miller - July 13th, 2006

Taiichi Ohno loved wordplay. He would take a few choice Japanese words and pack in as much kaizen wisdom as he could. He chose his words carefully, even though in much of his writing he was informal and direct, and not highly articulat

Words of Taiichi Ohno Sensei, Part 2: Foreword from the First Textbook on the Toyota Production System

By Jon Miller - July 12th, 2006

This is an image of the first textbook ever written on the Toyota Production System. The title reads Toyota Style Production System – The Toyota Method. The Toyota Education Department published this in January 1973. Taiichi Ohno wr

Words of Taiichi Ohno Sensei, Part 1: “I Never Said There Were 7 Types of Waste”

By Jon Miller - July 10th, 2006

One has to be careful these days when making statements about the origins of TPS and check the facts, or else be pinned to the mat for a count of three by the investigative tag-team of Art Smalley and Isao Kato. So I’ll confess t

Gemba Keiei Chapter 27: We Can Still Do a Lot More Kaizen

By Jon Miller - June 30th, 2006

Taiichi Ohno starts the chapter with the surprising statement “We have done a lot of rationalization on the production floor and we are near the limit. It’s becoming common sense that administrative processes still need a lot of ra

Gemba Keiei Chapter 26: There Are No Supervisors at the Administrative Gemba

By Jon Miller - June 22nd, 2006

“Administrative work is done at the gemba just the same as the production gemba where we make things. The office is the administrative gemba.” Taiichi Ohno begins the chapter. Gemba is a Japanese word meaning “actual place”. In

Gemba Keiei Chapter 25: Work is a Game of Wits with Subordinates

By Jon Miller - June 16th, 2006

Taiichi Ohno begins the chapter “In order to lead a large number of people in work, you have to be tough. But I think this is basically not a matter of giving orders or instructions, but a game of wits with subordinates.” Ohno says

Gemba Keiei Chapter 24: Fight the Robot Fad

By Jon Miller - June 7th, 2006

“We only started talking about ‘reduced volume production’ after the 1973 oil shock. Prior to that we could sell everything we made so cost reduction for mass production was easier.” Ohno goes on to say that although many other

Gemba Keiei Chapter 23: Producing at the Lowest Possible Cost

By Jon Miller - May 30th, 2006

Taiichi Ohno starts the chapter by telling the story of when the President of Toyota, Mr. Ishida, was summoned to the National Diet and scolded by politicians for building passenger cars that were too expensive. Back then even the head

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