Customer Reviews

The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I've read this book a few times, and got our factory excited by it as well. We read it 2 chapters a week as a group, with a volunteer facilitator reviewing the content of the chapters in a weekly session. Suggest you start with this one and then read "Creating a Lean Culture" by David Mann and then "The Toyota Way Fieldbook" by Jeffrey Liker. A must read for those interested in Lean Manufacturing or Self-Directed Workteams.

Pro:
-Shows the commitment of Toyota to their methods and philosophies. By commitment they mean a willingness to pursue your transformation for at least 10 years, which is why I think so many fail... lack of commitment.
-Provides building blocks upon which to apply lean tools or lean toolkit
-Philosophy is quite detailed for a few hundred pages, appears thorough and complete so if you want to, you can create a similar systems-based approach

Con:
-Not a recipe for you to copy... no shortcuts or cutting corners here.

Neutral:
-Not much detail on "tools" which is out of scope for the content of this book

Bottom line: I think that this book is true to the philosophies of Toyota as I've directly observed from the 4 or 5 different senseis (former Toyota executives turned consultants) I have had the chance to work with. I only recommend a few books, this is one of them. Pairs well with "Creating a Lean Culture," by David Mann as a way to extend the lessons learned in The Toyota Way.

This book is like a Toyota vehicle: not necessarily fancy, but extraordinarily capable of getting you from point "A" to point "B." Author Jeffrey K. Liker's thorough insight into the continual improvement method known as "The Toyota Way" reflects his experience with the Toyota Production System (TPS) and his knowledge of its guiding philosophies and its technical applications. He explains why Toyota has become a global symbol of passionate commitment to continual improvement and efficiency. Toyota's success as the world's most profitable automaker is no accident and now, thanks to this book, it's no mystery, either. Liker drills down to the underlying principles and behaviors that will set your company on the Toyota Way. The book reflects years of studying Toyota's philosophy: it is well mapped out, straightforward and exceedingly although not daringly innovative. We highly recommend it to anyone striving to improve their organization's operational efficiency.

This book puts Toyota back where it belongs: front and center in the world of the lean enterprise. The idea that Toyota just originated lean and that others have since taken it further is a fallacy that has lately been creeping into publications and conference presentations. The reality is that Toyota is still far ahead and that the vast majority of companies that claim to be lean are only "kinda, sorta" lean, with managements that simply have not understood the approach.

The book has a visible structure that the reader can use to zoom in on topics of interest. Fourteen principles are stated upfront, and then a chapter is devoted to each of these principles. The writing is clear, and many outside sources are acknowledged with a thoroughness that is uncommon in business books. In particular, 28 Toyota executives are acknowledged or quoted, which gives the book the flavor of an authorized rendition of the company's philosophy.

The book's greatest strength, the closeness of the author to the company's management, is also its main limitation. As an academic, the author could have assumed a less worshipful stance. For example, rather than taking management statements about wanting to do right for society as a whole at face value, he might have pointed out that they sound like obligatory recitations of Confucian values, and that it is arguable that flooding the world with cars is in the best interest of the human race. Also, without attacking the company, he could have made its portrayal more nuanced and vivid by including more points of view, such as those of line workers and former employees who may have a different perspective than current top managers.

The executives quoted in the book clearly feel that the philosophy is more important than the technical tools of the production system. This insight, however, has come to them as a result of using the tools intensively for many years, and the reader should not be misled into thinking that it is possible to bypass the tools and go straight to the philosophy.

I also have a few minor quibbles with the way the book is produced. The fourteen chapters covering the fourteen principles have numbers that don't match those of the principles, so that, for example, Principle 6 is covered in Chapter 12. This is confusing when looking up cross references. The subject of this book also calls for abundant illustrations, but there is only one for every seven pages, and no photographs. Finally, I think that the use of long words where short ones would do should be identified as the 9th category of waste. We don't need to hear about a "paradigm," As Tom Wolfe's hero in "A man in full" points out, the only thing it ever does is shift. Saying "non-value-added waste" where "waste" would suffice also strangely suggests that there might be an opposite called "value-added waste."

All this being said, this book is a good read based on intimate knowledge. I recommend it to anyone involved with lean, and particularly to managers and engineers in the auto parts industry who want to sell their products to Toyota.

When I was hired as a Process Engineer by Toyota and shipped off to Japan to learn how to be a Toyota engineer, I was lucky enough to be a part of the system that Dr. Liker describes in his book. I can, and do, use the text as a guidepost as I look back at the things we did and can better understand the 'Why' versus just the 'What'. The book does an excellent job in laying out a solid structure for the sometimes ethereal concepts within the Toyota Production System and ties them together in a way that is both easy to understand as well as communicate. With this book, we finally have a body of work that transcends the basic Value, Value Stream, Flow, Pull, Perfection framework (don't get me wrong, I strongly support the Womack/Jones framework at operational levels) and gets the reader behind the results and into the thinking processes that drive the behaviors that deliver the results. While some readers that have written in and panned the book seem to think that Dr. Liker is trying to say Toyota is 'perfect', I think that they have, unfortunately, missed the real message in the book. That is too bad for them, because the message is clear and powerful. One respondent sounded like a frustrated UAW organizer, in fact. I can only encourage them to re-read the text and try and gain a deeper understanding of the concepts that are presented. I'm on my sixth reading and the pages are quite dog-eared, sticky noted, and written all over.

Long story short: If you want to get 'into' the thinking processes that drive the most successful automobile company on the planet (can this be disputed?) and begin to apply these processes to your own area, plant, or company, this is the book for you! Let's not forget, Toyota is building a successful business by bringing manufacturing jobs TO America, not rushing headlong to China, India, or some other Asia-Pacific destination. That speaks volumes to the inherent power of Lean to deliver Value to the customer.

This book outlines many fine principles that Toyota Motor Corporation used to build this company. However, if Dr. Liker had devoted an extensive period of time in the Georgetown, KY facility, TMMK, where I've been a Team Member for 13 years, he would have gained a better perspective as to how the modern Toyota system operates, quite unlike the blueprint outlined by this company's founders. Quality is not the same as it was 10 years ago and cost cutting is the flavor of the day. Our workforce consists of a large percentage of temporary non-Toyota employees, many who have been here online for over 4 years. We have not earned a J.D. Power award in a few years either. Mr. Convis, who authored the forward, is the President of TMMK and has recently been engaged in thwarting a union movement by nearly 40% of the regular Team Members. In short, Dr. Liker's failure to extensively study Toyota in action in todays environment failed to appreciate the notion that the 14 principles are ideal, but only if practiced. I welcome anyone at Toyota to prove me wrong. I will say this: When Mr. Cho opened this plant back in 1988, we were a much better run organization and we earned many J.D. Power awards because the environment at that time was the application of many of these 14 Principles - not so today. I believe the author should rethink the way he writes his next book - this one isn't accurate and the reader is being misled if he or she thinks that Toyota adheres to this philosophy

I was one of the first members hired to work in the Toyota manufacturing plant in Kentucky (first 100). As such I was trained by true TPS experts from Japan. I can honestly say that Jeff captures more of the true essence of the Toyota Way than I have ever read. Now I am working with other companies that are attempting to adopt the Toyota philosophies for themselves. It was nice to see information that factually describes the philosophies of Toyota and to be able to share that with these companies.

Unfortunately, some people will read the book and assume that Toyota professes to be (or Liker is professing that they are) perfect. Far from it! Toyota (referring to the leadership of the company) would admit that they have much to improve, and that there are still many opportunities. They do not think they are "lean." In fact, word is that Eiji Toyoda himself said that the book exposed some weakness within Toyota and was an opportunity to reflect on how to become better. This is the true essence of Toyota. Team Member Mike in his review assumes that Liker is suggesting that Toyota is perfect. This is not the case. As with any organization there are many problems. For goodness sake, even though Toyota regularly ranks at the top of the JD Powers quality ranking they still average over 100 problems per vehicle! The notion of greatness is generated from outside of Toyota, not within. The management works hard to stay grounded in reality and certainly is aware of imperfections.

I think this argument is silly and not related to the book. The book is about the philosophy that Toyota embodies to manage their operations. Are there managers that do not live up to the ideal? Of course there are. Does that implicate the entire organization? No, it does not. The book does a good job of illustrating the intention of Toyota as an organization. You may not find here some of the common misunderstandings that are being spread around as "lean manufacturing" because honestly many of those concepts are not based in the Toyota Way.

The results of Toyota speak for themselves. They are outstanding, but not perfect by a long shot. This book does an excellent job of outlining the main concepts, but it would not be possible to outline the entire company with details of how to achieve the results in a single book. It is a very insightful look into a great company, not a blanket praising and blind admiration, but there are many good points about how Toyota intends to operate now and in the future.

This one fact will sink into your psyche after you read this insightful book - Quality is all about culture

The fourteen principles that you could use as the cornerstone for your organisation according to this book (and this particular reviewer) are:
1. Base your management decisions on long term philosophy, even at the expense of short term financial goals
2. Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface
3. Use pull systems to avoid over production
4. Level out the workload (Hiejunka)
5. Build a culture of stopping to fix problems to get quality right the first time
6. Standardised tasks are the foundation for continuous improvement and employer empowerment
7. Use visual controls so that no problems are hidden
8. Only use reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes
9. Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work and live the philosophy
10. Develop exceptional people and teams that follow your company's philosophy
11. Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve
12. Go and see for yourself and thoroughly understand the situation (Genchi Genbutsu)
13. Make decisions slowly by consensus thoroughly considering all options. Implement decisions rapidly
14. Become a learning organisation through relentless reflection (Hansei) and continuous improvement (Kaizen)

Just an outstanding book

Liker's "The Toyota Way" provides a good introduction for someone not familiar with "lean production" or "The Toyota Production System (TPS)." On the other hand, I prefer the materials written by Tachii Ohno and Shigeo Shingo (Toyota Production System developers) for their greater clarity (if you excuse the sometimes labored translations) and detail.

Liker begins by pointing out that in the 1980s it became clear that Japanese cars were lasting longer than American models and required less repair. (They were also cheaper to build - even if you ignored lower labor costs.) Toyota's profit for FY '03 exceeded G.M., Ford, and Chrysler - combined! Toyota has the fastest product development process in the world.

Key to the TPS is a commitment to continuous improvement, directed at "adding value." Adding value, however, is defined from the customers' point of view - specifically excluded are activities such as overproduction (creates unneeded transport, tracking, and storage space needs; also increases risks of obsolescence and quality problems), waiting (eg. watching a machine, lack of parts, bottlenecks, downtime - perhaps for line changeover), transportation, defects, and searching (eg. parts, and paperwork - retrieving, or finding the required information within it). Liker also reports that most processes are about 90% non-value-added (waste); if one focuses on value-added "process-time", the proportion of waste is usually much higher.

Keys to eliminating/reducing these problems include continuous flow (one-piece production cells), stopping to immediately fix problems, fast changeover (eg. easy line modification for alternative models), using visual control (eg. marked inventory boundaries, alarm lights), use of "pull" systems and "kanban" to eliminate overproduction (without complex computer systems), helping (and standardizing) suppliers, asking "Why?" five times when a problem arises to ensure correction of "root causes" in a manner that helps other areas as well (eg. why the puddle (oil leak), why the oil leak (gasket problem), why the gasket problem (wrong specifications), why wrong specifications (Purchasing Dept. focus on initial acquisition price), why Purchasing Dept. mis-focus (wrong reward critia) --> correct underlying problems so that does not continually recur), eliminating variation (eg. reduce suppliers, tighter tolerances).

Liker points out that American supermarkets provided Ohno with the idea for the TPS "pull" system (emptying of product space by customers results in a visual cue for staff to restock and reorder).

We help companies in USA and Asia implement TPS and Lean manufacturing. This book, now available in Chinese version, has always been the first book we have recommended to our clients. The philosophy of The Toyota Way is the key to assure the success of implementing lean. The 14 management principles Dr. Liker reveals through his tremendous efforts in studying the TPS really teaches you "know why" while many books only teach you "know how". Unless you understand the "know why" and live with it, your lean system is superficial no matter how well you have applied those lean tools, as the author points in the book. For managers in today's competitive global economy, it is worth your time to read this book once, twice and more to learn from the best, The Toyota Way.

Most companies trying to duplicate Toyota's sucsesses in producing the highest quality vehicles and at the same time achieving record sales and profits, typically try to implement JIT or TQM and miss the underlying culture which fosters the development of these manufacturing techniques. They also tend to miss out on how each of these techniques work together to form a comprehensive system which gives Toyota a sustainable competitive advantage even though its techniques and processes are widely known.

Liker outlines the fundamentals of not only Toyota's lean manufacturing, but the Toyota philosophy. In his words, "the Toyota Production System [TPS] 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 allow TPS to fuction so effectively." He then goes on to explain the philosophy which he has organized around 14 principles:

1) Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy even at the expense of short-term financial goals
2) Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface
3) Use pull systems to avoid overproduction
4) Level out the workload (work like the tortoise and not the hare)
5) Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time
6) Standardized tasks are the foundation for continuous improvement
7) Use visual control so no problems are hidden
8) Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes
9) Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and teach it to others
10) Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company's philosophy
11) Respect your extended network of parners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve
12) Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation
13) Make decisions slowly, by concensus, thoroughly considering all options [and then] implement decisions rapidly
14) Beacome a learning organization through relentless reflection and continuous improvement.

"Since Toyota's founding we have adhered to the core principle of contributing to society through the practice of manufacturing high-quality products and services. Our business practices and activities based on this core principle created values, beliefs and business methods that over the years have become a source of competitive advantage. These are managerial values and business methods that are known collectively as the Toyota Way" - Fujio Cho, President Toyota (2001)