Tag: Toyota

Toyota Thinking: Leadership, Systems, and Continuous Improvement

Toyota is often cited as the inspiration for Lean, but its success is rooted in leadership behaviors, management systems, and a deep commitment to learning—not tools or slogans. This archive brings together blog posts, podcasts, and reflections on Toyota’s approach to quality, continuous improvement, psychological safety, and respect for people. Many of these posts explore what leaders outside Toyota often misunderstand—and what truly matters if they hope to learn from Toyota rather than copy it.

Lean Culture Starts with Trust: Why Fear Kills Improvement

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As I'm going through revisions of my book, Lean Hospitals, a theme jumps out at me in Chapter 2.... it's all about trust. The first...

Why GM Blamed JIT for Layoffs After the Japan Earthquake —...

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TL;DR -- GM vs. Toyota After the Japan Earthquake General Motors (GM) Blamed Just-In-Time (JIT) for parts shortages Temporarily laid off workers when production stopped Treated downtime as...

From the LEI Summit: Mike Rother on Toyota’s View on ROI

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I really had a great learning experience at last week's LEI Lean Transformation Summit that was held here in Dallas. The event sold out...

Donations for Japan Earthquake Relief

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Our thoughts and prayers are with our friends in Japan and everybody there dealing with the aftermath of the earthquake and whatever problems are...

Enough with the Factory Bashing, Please – Healthcare Professionals and WIRED...

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Those of you who know my background know that I spent the first 10 years of my career working in various manufacturing sectors (including...

Toyota’s Video Showing How TPS Helps Healthcare; Recent NASA Report Exonerates...

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Toyota has produced a series of videos that show how their innovations, technology and otherwise, have benefitted people outside of automobiles. One video that caught...

10 Key Lean Mindsets for Healthcare Leaders

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I really enjoyed having the chance to be in Cincinnati yesterday to participate in a Lean Healthcare workshop put on by TechSolve, a non-profit...

Jeffrey Liker on Toyota’s Crisis, Recalls, and the Real Test of...

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Jeffrey Liker explains why Toyota's recalls were not a failure of the Toyota Way, but a breakdown in listening, speed, and customer understanding. The...

Cases of Technology “Solutions” Looking for a Problem?

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One of my favorite of the 14 "Toyota Way" principles to discuss with hospitals, in particular, is  principle #8, which  says: "Use only reliable, thoroughly...

Do Good Coaches Brush Off Feedback from the Team as Whining?

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I got a question via Twitter yesterday from somebody who asked how to help production operators make the case to supervisors that their kaizen...

Invest in Robots or in People? Amazon Makes the Lean Decision

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I'm finally blogging about a Wall Street Journal article from just before Christmas - it's still a generally interesting topic, I think. The article...

Robert De Niro, #Lean Thinker?

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The other day, I was reading the latest issue of Esquire magazine, with an interview with the famed actor Robert De Niro. One thing he...
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