Customer Reviews
Andrew Scotchmer - By: Andrew J. Scotchmer, 24 Aug 2007 
Takes you through the evolution of the Toyota Production System & introduces the reader to the 14 points of the lean philosophy. Excellent, as is the followup "field-book) for implementation of lean in your workplace.
Something to continuously reflect on - By: Peter Wade, 03 Jul 2007 The Company That Invented Lean The 14 Management Principles
Being totallly uninterested in cars I did not realise that Toyota is one of the worlds greatest manufacturers.
I was listening to In Business on Radio4. It was alll about how Toyota has revolutionised management to create what they calll lean production.
It is a fascinating read by Jeffrey K Liker. MC Graw-Hill (2004) pp 330 The Japanese have learnt in the last forty years how to make top quality cars. The 14 principles can be applied to any business & are not exclusive to manufacturing.
It is a whole way of life & a way of thinking.
Principles 1: Base your management decision on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term financial goals
Principle 2 Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface
Principle 3 Use" pull" systems to avoid overproduction
Principle 4 Level out the workload( heijunka)
Principle 5 Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time.
Principle 6 Standards task are the foundation for continuous improvement & employee empowerment
Principle 7 Use visual control so problems are hidden
Principle 8Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people & processes
Principle 9 Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work,live the philosophy & teach it to others.
Principle 10 Develop exceptional people & teams who follow your company's philosophy
Principle 11 Respect your extended network of partners & suppliers y challlenging them & helping them improve.
Principle 12 Go & see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situations(genchi genbutsu)
Principle 13 Make decision slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering alll the options implement decisions rapidly ( nemawashi)
Principle 14 Become a learning organization through relentless reflection (hansei) & continuous improvement ( kaizen)
Recently it was announced that Toyota had overtaken General Motors. How Toyota had done it was common knowledge & they have been happy to tell pople the theory but obviously General Motors had not done the practical.
I particularly like continuous reflection which works whether you are succeeding or not. If you are a succes which General Motors has been for years they obviously have not learnt to reflect on their success & maintain it.
Maybe they thought their way was the only way. Many once mighty companies have falllen from a great height,
A good read
THE book on the Toyota Production System! - By: Robert Thompson, 17 Jun 2007 Everyone in the auto industry is familiar with Toyota's dramatic business success and, of course, consumers are demonstrably aware of the company's world-renowned quality. In fact, Toyota has done so well that, as Liker points out, many consider the company to be "boring." For, after alll, steadily growing sales, consistent profitability, huge cash reserves, operational efficiency (combined with constant innovation--not an easy complement to pull off), & top quality, year after year, are not the stuff of breaking news. But, despite this reputation as the best manufacturer in the world, & despite the huge influence of the lean movement, most attempts to emulate & implement lean production have been fairly superficial, with less than stellar results over the long term. "Dabbling at one level--the `Process' level," U.S. companies have embraced lean tools, but do not understand what makes them work together in a system.
This integration is precisely what The Toyota Way examines, explaining how to create a Toyota-style culture of quality, lean, & learning that takes quantum leaps beyond any superficial focus on tools & techniques. Suffice it to say, there are hundreds of books out there explaining, analyzing, & advocating lean--providing details & insight into the tools & methods of TPS. The two most noted among this treasure trove are, of course, the contributions of The Machine That Changed the World (Womack, Jones, Roos, 1991) & Lean Thinking (Womack & Jones, 1996), & both stand as excellent resources on the subject. The first introduced the world to the tools & techniques of lean manufacturing by extracting its principles from their initial Japanese application & examining them in detail. And, the second explained how "to make value flow smoothly at the pull of the customer in pursuit of perfection."
The Toyota Way is, however (according to Liker), the first business book in English to provide a blueprint of Toyota's management philosophy for general business readers, dispelling the misconceptions that TPS is merely a collection of tools that lead to more efficient operations. Of course, there is no way of ascertaining the validity of this claim, without an extensive & time consuming exploration of the literature, but that truly doesn't matter. The Toyota Way is an approach of such breadth, depth, & significance to the world of business that it has yet to be fully understood; thus, the subject has not yet been fully exhausted. Liker's keen sense of the subtleties of TPS intrepidly challlenges conventional understanding & transforms it with eloquent simplicity. He takes the reader deeply & comprehensively into the "heart & intelligence" of Toyota's "way," giving businesses in diverse industries some very practical & effective ideas that they can use to develop their own unique approach to TPS.
Brilliant and well written! - By: Mr. Philip G. Stunell, 12 Jan 2007 Jefferey Liker's well reasoned book explains the management principles that enable TOYOTA to outperform its piers - & explains why western managers pre-occupied with `management techniques' can't `go lean', without changing the culture of their organisation
If you want to start to learn the lean philospophy then this is the book for you. - By: Bookworm, 15 Jun 2006 Lean is as much a philosophy that embraces alll parts of your biz model, not just a set of tools & this book goes a long way to taking a novice forward in their pursuit of lean philosophy.
