The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement: Linking Strategy and Operational Excellence to Achieve Superior Performance [Hardcover]

Jeffrey Liker (Author), James K. Franz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 19, 2011

A lean blueprint for creating long-term sustainability the Toyota way!

During Toyota’s highly publicized recalls of 2009 and 2010, the legendary carmaker’s 60-year-old reputation for operational excellence was put under the microscope. Business pundits wondered out loud if Toyota’s quality levels had decreased dramatically, while the harshest critics predicted the end of the company as we know it. For the most part, the government’s findings absolved Toyota of serious defects and accidents, and Toyota recovered rapidly—but mistakes were made, which showed that Toyota is not perfect. In fact, there is always opportunity for improvement in every process.

In his bestselling business management classic The Toyota Way, Jeffrey Liker introduced the world to the foundational principles that have made Toyota the envy of companies around the world. Now, in The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement, Liker teams up with former Toyota production engineer James Franz to explain the underlying thinking behind continuous improvement and why any company needs a disciplined approach to process improvement in every part of the organization.

Liker and Franz outline the common mistakes in thinking that limit results, and they reveal how Toyota achieves its dual objectives of improving business performance and developing its people through following Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s teachings of Plan-Do-Check-Adjust (PDCA). Through detailed case examples in many industries, you’ll learn how to:

• Determine why your processes aren’t achieving anticipated results
• Build a sustainable lean process with a well-defined purpose
• Create a system that reveals problems
• Teach every leader and team member at every level the art of PDCA for process improvement

With The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement, you have the foundation you need to develop a vision of continuous improvement specific to your organization and plot a path to turn your vision into a measurable reality.

Praise for The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement:

“I have found inspiration and lessons in these real stories from real people who try, sometimes fail, and yet find creative ways to succeed in adapting the principles of Deming and Toyota. Despite the diversity of applications revealed here, the commonality in vision, values, and desired outcomes unifies these leaders. You won’t be able to put this book down.”
RICHARD ZARBO, MD, DMD, Senior Vice President and Chairman of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Henry Ford Health System

“Lean is no longer an idea, a hypothesis, or a theory—it is a proven set of principles and practices that more and more people are using to achieve substantial, sustainable continuous improvement in a variety of enterprises. This book details the practices and case studies to help you bring Lean transformation to your enterprise!”
CHARLES BAKER, former Chief Engineer and former Vice President, Honda R&D Americas

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeffrey K. Liker, the author of the bestselling The Toyota Way, is professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering and cofounder and cofounder and President of The Toyota Way Academy. With nine Shingo Prizes for research excellence his work has appeared in The Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, and other leading publications.

James K. Franz learned lean as a Toyota Production Engineer in Japan, and has more than 22 years of manufacturing experience.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (April 19, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071477462
• ISBN-13: 978-0071477468
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.4 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #37,717 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #9 in Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Industrial
  • #12 in Books > Business & Investing > Industries & Professions > Transportation
  • #20 in Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Total Quality Management

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceeding My Expectations!, May 8, 2011

By 

Always Learning - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement: Linking Strategy and Operational Excellence to Achieve Superior Performance (Hardcover)

I pre-ordered this book and have been eagerly awaiting it for quite a while. Started reading it a couple of days ago, and am happy to say that so far, it has exceeded my expectations. Excellent explanation of role of PDCA in creating an organization that is learning, improving, and learning together over and over again. Excellent mix of theory and case studies so far. I believe that this book will be a great read for anyone at any place along their lean journey. Can't wait to read more!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mandatory for Lean experts, October 9, 2011

By 

b.urselman - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement: Linking Strategy and Operational Excellence to Achieve Superior Performance (Hardcover)

I have read all books by Jeff Liker and most of them more than once. His "The Toyota Way", "Toyota Culture" and "Toyota Talent" are classics for anyone interested in Lean (Toyota Business System). They give a good and detailed view in the way Lean works for Toyota.

Many Lean Masters/Practitioners are working in a less ideal situation and are struggling to get Lean implemented or to sustain/improve Lean in an organization. As with 5S, sustaining is the hardest part of being Lean.

"The Toyota Way for Continuous Improvement" brings the understanding that the PDCA cycle is the necessary part in a CI process. As a consultant I notice that the CA part of this cycle is often forgotten and the operation mostly falls back to its old levels.

Most companies that start with their Lean adventure, start with the ideal of getting Lean but actually look for a nice head count reduction. After a first start the operations always falls back to a basic level of Lean with every now and then an eruption of some Lean activities. Which is preferably linked with the next headcount reduction?

This book gives good guidelines on what to do when such a fallback has taken place. The 8 cases Liker/Franz describe, give a good view on how to improve these operations. What I have learned from this wide variation of companies, is that it takes about 6 to 8 years to really implement Lean in companies that already understand some things about it. What I also recognized is the general feeling in such divers companies, is what I call "we are different" feeling within such companies. Often they have a Lean façade (as Jeff Liker calls it so strikingly). I've heard this "different-saying" from Banks, Hospitals, Government organizations, and so on. The cases in this book show that the Lean tools can work everywhere, whenever there is waste.

Reading this book often brought a recognizing feeling of stages companies are in, who mention themselves as being Lean. No empowerment, 5S only on a basic level, only limited visual management, CI as a saving tool. This book can help every Lean Master/Practitioner to bring the company they are working for to the next level of Lean in a never ending journey.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Executive Implementer, June 4, 2011

By 

J H Hillebarger - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement: Linking Strategy and Operational Excellence to Achieve Superior Performance (Hardcover)

I have just finished my first read through of the latest offering in the Toyota Way series by Jeff Liker and James Franz. This book, in my opinion, is the best addition to the series and gives the original Toyota Way a run for its money when it comes to pure value.
The book is broken into three distinct sections beginning with the purpose of the book, which is dead on, the philosophical and theoretical constructs around PDCA. It continues with a tremendously diverse section of case studies from around the globe and finished up with a final novella about a company undergoing its own transformation and the lessons learned by all involved.
I'm glad to see the authors attribute to Shewhart/Deming the heavy lifting of developing the conceptual framework of P-D-C-A almost a century ago. Too often books on Toyota are superficial and miss this important part of their competitive DNA. I agree with a prior reviewer about the importance in Chapter 5 about the distinction between a typical `lean it out' approach and truly building what the authors call a `lean system.'
The case studies were a valuable addition to the book as they took real people in real industries that aren't automotive and allowed the reader to join them on their respective lean journeys. There were varying levels of successes in the stories, but all showed the power of developing people into problem solvers.
The final section starts with a `case study' of a company just starting on their journey and the successes and setback that they encounter. The last two chapters deal with the topics of leadership and sustaining the improved system, which haven't been emphasized enough in other publications, in my opinion. The typical narrow-minded thinking around what the authors call mechanistic hits very close to home.
It's a long book but definitely leaves the reader with an idea of `what now' that a lot of the other books lack. I'm going back over specific chapters again as it's a lot to take in with just a single read.