TPS Benchmarking Archives | Page 5 of 15

Questions Raised by Voluntary Kaizen Policy at Toyota

By Jon Miller - August 31st, 2008

Doing some more research into the “voluntary” overtime issue as a management practice in Japan, we found that American fast food giant McDonald’s was recently hit with the same ruling as Toyota and must now pay their

We Do Not Make What We Do Not Sell: No More Trucks in Indiana

By Jon Miller - July 13th, 2008

It is no mistake to say that the people at the top of Toyota, the President, CEO, Chairman and other executives all thoroughly understand production control. How many CEOs in the world can say this? In a word we might say that in TPS t

Genjitsu: The Only Reality

By Jon Miller - June 24th, 2008

There are those moments when the right words come together in an a way that resonates deeply and inspires one to write them down and repeat them to others. The words by themselves are not profound, and one suspects that even rearranged

Toyota’s Secret to Kaizen Success: Unpaid OT?

By Jon Miller - May 24th, 2008

There was an interesting development at Toyota last week. Articles reported titles such as Toyota to raise overtime pay for ‘voluntary’ work. Titles included terms of interest, not often combined: kaizen, voluntary, overwor

Where does the time go?

By Jon Miller - May 5th, 2008

That’s what I wondered when seeing that it’s been nearly a week since the last post. It’s an idle question, until you start to think about it. Then you get dizzy, stop and look to those who came before us for insight.

The Secret of TPS

By Jon Miller - April 6th, 2008

The Toyota Production System (TPS) is widely recognized as a cornerstone of Lean manufacturing. It’s characterized by just in time production and judoka, delivering precisely what customers want when they want it. Toyota’s

Comments on Toyota President Watanabe's New Year's Greeting

By Jon Miller - January 1st, 2008

Toyota entered the popular consciousness in 2007 by overtaking General Motors as the number one automobile manufacturer in the world by vehicles sold. Those of us who study lean manufacturing know that Toyota with its production system

Lean Enterprise Rules of Three

By Jon Miller - December 17th, 2007

“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with Caesar.” That’s from an eu

Start Simple, Go Back to Basics, Repeat

By Jon Miller - December 12th, 2007

This is an image of the assembly line at Toyota’s Honsha plantin Koromo City, over 60 years ago. We may think we have come a long way from this, but in fact nearly every month I see a 21st century factory that looks not too diffe

Toyota’s Suggestion System: 56 Years and Still Going Strong

By Jon Miller - December 9th, 2007

In 1951 Toyota launched its Creative Idea Suggestion System. It was largely a copy of suggestion systems that were in place in U.S. companies at the time, namely the Ford Motor Company. Toyota made some notable innovations to it over t

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