By: Jeffrey Liker Publisher: McGraw-Hill Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: McGraw-Hill Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 350 Publication Date: December 17, 2003
How to speed up business processes, improve quality, and cut costs in any industry
In factories around the world, Toyota consistently makes the highest-quality cars with the fewest defects of any competing manufacturer, while using fewer man-hours, less on-hand inventory, and half the floor space of its competitors. The Toyota Way is the first book for a general audience that explains the management principles and business philosophy behind Toyota's worldwide reputation for quality and reliability.
Complete with profiles of organizations that have successfully adopted Toyota's principles, this book shows managers in every industry how to improve business processes by:
Eliminating wasted time and resources
Building quality into workplace systems
Finding low-cost but reliable alternatives to expensive new technology
Producing in small quantities
Turning every employee into a qualitycontrol inspector
Book Purchase Book seller presented accurate information regarding the condition and quality of the book. Book receipt time was excellent and well within the timeframe given to the purchaser. Thanks for the great service.
To understand this company's success, first understand its DNA
I read this book when it was first published in 2004 and recently re-read it, curious to know how well Jeffrey Liker's explanation of Toyota's management principles and lean production values have held up. My conclusion? Very well.
No good purpose would be served by merely listing the 14 management principles, out of context. Liker devotes a separate chapter to each, carefully explaining not only what it is but also how it guides and informs everyone at all levels and in all areas of the Toyota organization. What Liker also accomplishes, and what cannot be adequately summarized in a review such as this, is to explain how all 12 principles are interdependent. Together, they serve as the company's DNA. In the Preface, he recalls asking Fujio Cho (President of Toyota Motor Company) what was unique about his company's remarkable success. His answer was quite simple: "The key to the Toyota Way and what makes Toyota stand out is not any of the individual elements...But what is important is having all the elements together as a system. It must be practiced every day in a very consistent manner." To understand Toyota's success, therefore, it is important to understand that lean production is not a methodology, it is literally a way of life.
The 14 principles are divided into four sections:
Having a long-term philosophy that drives a long-term approach to building a learning organization
Absolute faith that the right process will produce the right results
Adding value to the organization by developing its people and partners
Continuously solving root problems to drive organizational learning
As Liker points out, it is important to understand that the Toyota Production System is not the Toyota Way. TPS is the most systematic and highly developed example of what the principles of the Toyota Way can accomplish. The Toyota Way consists of the foundational principles of the Toyota culture, which allows the TPS to function so effectively.
How does lean improvement differ from traditional process improvement? "Briefly, wheras the traditional approach to process improvement focuses on local efficiencies, in a lean improvement initiatuve, most of the progress comes from a large number of non-value steps being squeezed out. For example, overproduction, delays, and wasted motion. In fact, the ultimate goal of lean manufacturing is to apply the ideal of one-piece flow to all business operations, from product design to launch, order taking, physical production, and shipment."Some of the differences are subtle but no less significant.
To repeat, anyone can read this book and then uncerstand what the Toyota Way is. Possessing a gourmet chef's recipe, however, does not ensure that a gourmet meal will be prepared. Toyota has its own way. Other companies must develop theirs based on their own "roots." In other words, lead from their traditional strengths but not be limited by them. In fact, companies may need to re-invent themselves, not once but several times. That is what Toyota did...and continues to do. Use operational excellence as a strategic weapon and the rewards and results will far outweigh the great effort required.
That said, Liker does provide 13 "general tips." The first is to begin with action in the technical system and then follow quickly with cultural change. Other suggestions include learning by doing first and training second, using value stream mapping to develop future state visions to help "learn to see," and being opportunistic in identifying opportunities for big financial impacts. They are provided with brief but precise explanations on Pages 302-307.
It remains for each person who reads this book to determine which of the 14 management principles are most relevant to her or his own enterprise, and then to determine how to translate each into effective action. Presumably Liker agrees with me that most companies have 3-5 areas in which "lean" initiatives are urgently needed. Developing an execution plan can be tricky, however, because all business transaction involve a process of some kind and improvement of one process inevitably has a direct impact on several others. Here's one possibility, suggested to me by a COO to whom I gave a copy of this book: Read the final chapter, Chapter 22, first. It's title is "Build Your Own Lean Learning Enterprise, Borrowing from the Toyota Way." He thinks that will provide an appropriate framework within which to proceed from Gary Convis' Foreword and Liker's Preface to the conclusion of Chapter 21. That suggestion is worth consideration.
Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Liker's Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way as well as Matthew Mays' The Elegant Solution: Toyota's Formula for Mastering Innovation, David Magee's How Toyota Became Toyota: Leadership Lessons from the World's Greatest Car company, and What Is Lean Six Sigma? co-authored by Michael L. George, David Rowlands, and Bill Kastle.
Toyota Production System Requires Stamina at the Top This is an excellent book to uncover the beautiful simplicity of the Toyota Production System. Although simple is always best, with complicated cars, machines and huge sums of parts, it sometimes is lost in the jungle of the manufacturing floor. This is where a company's leadership is key to the success of the lean manufacturing endeavor. Obviously, the Toyoda family had a long line of brilliant individuals that have not only kept the principles alive, but continued to drive the company to record growth and profits. This book is very good for showing the way, but there is a lot more detail requred to actually implement the system. As an introduction to the system and the philosophies, this book is excellent. If you are looking to implement lean manufacturing, you will need more than one book to accomplish the task, and you will need leadership within your organization that is willing to change and embrace a new way. Most company efforts will collapse due to managment not having the stamina it takes to fully change their plant floor, their material flow and their processes. With the Toyota Production System, you are never "done" but you continue to look for improvement forever.
Operational excellence as a strategic weapon The Toyota Way certainly does provide the foundation of using operational excellence as a strategic weapon. With increased competition, companies are continuously challenged to achieve operational excellence in a better way than its competitors, and use this as their strategic weapon or at least ensure that they are meeting/exceeding industry standard in this area. This book contributed many ideas to my MBA dissertation, in creating a profit for an insurance company that had been making continuous losses for a number of years. The continuous process flow mentioned in the book was adopted and resulted in significant cost savings, by eliminating certain processes and improving the quality control.
This book has also influenced me to purchase a Toyota Fortuner, moving from the Honda brand that I had driven for years.
Judith Kean, FCCA
Great Book on tape Great for those that are on the go and would like to learn a little more about TPS and lean manufacturing.
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