Customer Reviews
To understand this company's success, first understand its DNA - By: Robert Morris, 31 Jul 2008 
I read this book when it was first publishedin 2004 & recently re-read it, curious to know how well Jeffrey Liker's explanation of Toyota's management principles & 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 & informs everyone at all levels &in all areas of the Toyota organization. What Liker also accomplishes, & what cannot be adequately summarizedin 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 & 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 dayin 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 & 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 & 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, & 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, & shipment."Some of the differences are subtle but no less significant.
To repeat, anyone can read this book & 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 & the rewards & results will far outweigh the great effort required.
That said, Liker does provide 13 "general tips." The first is to begin with actionin the technical system & then follow quickly with cultural change. Other suggestions include learning by doing first & training second, using value stream mapping to develop future state visions to help "learn to see," & being opportunisticin 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, & then to determine how to translate each into effective action. Presumably Liker agrees with me that most companies have 3-5 areasin which "lean" initiatives are urgently needed. Developing an execution plan can be tricky, however, because all business transaction involve a process of some kind & 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 & 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 & 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, & What Is Lean Six Sigma? co-authored by Michael L. George, David Rowlands, & Bill Kastle.
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 leanin your workplace.
Something to continuously reflect on - By: Peter Wade, 03 Jul 2007 The Company That Invented Lean The 14 Management Principles
Being totally uninterestedin cars I did not realise that Toyota is one of the worlds greatest manufacturers.
I was listening to In Business on Radio4. It was all about how Toyota has revolutionised management to create what they call lean production.
It is a fascinating read by Jeffrey K Liker. MC Graw-Hill (2004) pp 330 The Japanese have learntin 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 challenging 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 all 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 fallen from a great height,
A good read
THE book on the Toyota Production System! - By: Robert Thompson, 17 Jun 2007 Everyonein 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 all, 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 manufacturerin 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 togetherin 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 themin detail. And, the second explained how "to make value flow smoothly at the pull of the customerin pursuit of perfection."
The Toyota Way is, however (according to Liker), the first business bookin 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 challenges conventional understanding & transforms it with eloquent simplicity. He takes the reader deeply & comprehensively into the "heart & intelligence" of Toyota's "way," giving businessesin 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
