TPS Benchmarking Archives | Page 4 of 6

The Toyota Way is Doing Obvious Things

By Jon Miller - February 6th, 2007

…but doing them exceptionally well. This was a comment from an economist on a TV news program in Japan I heard some while ago, that seems to have become common knowledge in Japanese business consciousness. This idea of the Toyota

We Made Someone at Toyota Headquarters Unhappy

By Jon Miller - February 5th, 2007

We teach the Toyota system. We want to teach it to as many people as want to learn about it. As a consequence we think we provide Toyota with good PR. It seems not everyone at Toyota headquarters agrees. Here is an e-mail we received l

Toyota Production System Implementation at Japan Post, Year 4

By Jon Miller - January 29th, 2007

Here is an update to the story of Toyota instructors teaching TPS to the Japan Post and a partial answer to the question Toyota Botches Lean Implementation at Japan Post? posted earlier in this blog. The following is a summary from the

Japan Kaikaku Experience Field Report, January 2007

By Jon Miller - January 22nd, 2007

Recap of Our Recent Japan Kaikaku Experience-By Brad Schmidt Toyota’s Innovation: Toyota showcased an impressive update. They’ve introduced full kitting on specific sections of their assembly line. Kit carts follow the car

TPS Kids

By Jon Miller - January 20th, 2007

Modern marketing gurus will tell you that in order to build customer loyalty you need customers to develop a deep, emotional attachment to the brand. One of the ways this is done is by telling engaging stories about the brand. Toyota s

Endless Creativity, Inquisitiveness and Pursuit of Improvement

By Jon Miller - January 2nd, 2007

In his New Year’s address Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe positions 2007 as a foundation building year. He acknowledges both that Toyota sees not only strong growth in demand for their products but also fierce competition. He

Note to Toyota: Top Five Things to Do in 2007 as World’s #1 Automobile Manufacturer

By Jon Miller - December 23rd, 2006

According to a Wall Street Journal article today Toyota Is Poised to Surpass GM As the Top Car Maker Next Year. That would be 9.04 million vehicles, just ahead of General Motors. Congratulations are premature, but it’s not too ea

And Now We Have “Kakushin” (sigh…)

By Jon Miller - December 8th, 2006

In the December 9, 2006 Wall Street Journal article titled As Rivals Catch Up, Toyota CEO Spurs Big Efficiency Drive the Toyota Motor Corporation President Watanabe adds another Japanese word to the Lean lexicon: kakushin. Debates coul

The Toyota Way is Total Company Discipline, Partial Study is GM’s Failure

By Jon Miller - November 27th, 2006

Kan Higashi was President of the NUMMI company, the joint venture between Toyota and GM, when it was started two decades ago. In the October 16, 2006 issue of Nikkei Business (a Japanese magazine) Mr. Higashi shares his insights in a s

Dissatisfaction: The Essence of Toyota Management and the Kaizen Mindset

By Jon Miller - November 20th, 2006

I’ve said again and again that complacency and being satisfied with the current condition are anathema to kaizen. The article in Fast Company December/January 2006 issue titled “No Satisfaction” is excellent. Here are

Things They Say at Toyota: Being Busy is Shameful

By Jon Miller - November 2nd, 2006

Being busy is shameful. What an odd thought. It goes against the workaholic nature of most Americans and our Puritan work ethic. I can’t recall exactly where I heard this but it was definitely from one of my sensei who came from

Lessons from Toyota’s IT Strategy

By Jon Miller - October 22nd, 2006

There are some interesting lessons from Toyota’s IT Strategy in the minutes from the Third IT Economics Salon of the Economic and Social Research Institute which is part of the Cabinet Office of the Japanese Government. The guest

Things They Say at Toyota: Ask “Why?” Five Times

By Jon Miller - October 19th, 2006

One of the ways to judge whether a company is succeeding in their journey towards being an organization that embraces continuous improvement based on the Toyota Production System model is how often people ask “why?” as part

Learning English the Toyota Production System Way!

By Jon Miller - October 12th, 2006

You know Toyota Production System has hit the big time in Japan when there’s an English language learning book out based on TPS. It’s titled “Mastering the Toyota Production System through English Speech Practice̶

Things They Say at Toyota: Protect Your Own Castle

By Jon Miller - October 2nd, 2006

One of the expressions I’ve come across working with and reading the writings of Toyota people is “Protect your own castle” 「自分の城は自分で守れ」. You could also say “You are responsible for prote

A Workplace that Encourages Movement Gets Good Results

By Jon Miller - September 20th, 2006

A classroom that encourages movement gets good grades. One of our team members recently spotted this article during a Northwest Airlines flight in the September 2006 in-flight magazine. According to a study done by the Mayo Clinic with

How to Learn the Fundamentals of the Toyota Production System in 30 Days

By Jon Miller - September 13th, 2006

Anyone can be taught to do kaizen in 30 days. If you’re wondering how to learn the fundamentals of the Toyota Production System in 30 days (or how to teach it) you can take a hint from the June 23, 2006 article in Nikkei Joho Str

Can I Get an A3 Report with those 2.38 Million Recalls?

By Jon Miller - August 24th, 2006

Toyota has made public apologies this year for both the number of recalls and goofs handling them. A Wall Street Journal article today titled Toyota May Delay New Models To Address Rising Quality Issues speculates that Toyota will slow

Learning Lessons from Big Mistakes

By Jon Miller - August 7th, 2006

I made a big mistake last week. Apologies were made. Lessons were learned. Errors in judgment are revealing mistakes to learn from, since in your your state of mind at the time you were not in error. The kaizen philosophy requires that

When did Toyota Get to be a Company Like This?

By Jon Miller - August 2nd, 2006

Toyota does not sell cars because people crave their sleek design or because the Camry is a status symbol. People buy and drive Toyotas because they are reliable and they have a high resale value. They are well-built and reasonably pri

Toyota Feels the Heat from Hyundai

By Jon Miller - June 17th, 2006

The Autoblog is always good for some emotional point-counterpoint when it comes to the fates and doings of the automobile manufacturers in the United States. Today’s post titled Toyota to suppliers: don’t sell to Hyundai pr

Kaizen the Design, Recall the Part

By Jon Miller - May 31st, 2006

A Washington Street Journal article on May 31, 2006 reports that once again, Toyota Recalls Some Prius Cars. That’s some 170,000 Prius vehicles. If you include the other models it’s nearly a million cars recalled for parts

Construction Executives Visit Toyota, Learn Kaizen

By Jon Miller - May 25th, 2006

From time to time we post articles about our Lean manufacturing benchmarking trips and travelogues of doing kaizen in interesting places around the world. Today I want to point you to the Reforming Project Management blog and an articl

Toyota Seeking Top Talent: Tightwads Only Need Apply

By Jon Miller - March 26th, 2006

There have been several articles over the last year pointing out the challenge Toyota is facing as they expand overseas to find good people. The report Toyota’s Challenge: Growing the Talent points out that Toyota is growing faster t

The Link Between Gemba Kaizen and Human Resource Development

By Jon Miller - March 9th, 2006

Nidhi Shah recently posted a question on this blog “Is there a link between Gemba kaizen and HRD personnel in an organisation?” Thanks for your question Nidhi. Kaizen and Lean manufacturing can sometimes be seen as technica

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