John is an industrial anthropologist who divides his time between teaching & research and advising individuals and organizations who wish to understand and implement the collection of principles and practices known as the lean enterprise. He contributes periodically to online journals Planet Lean www.https://planet-lean.com/, the Lean Post at www.lean.org/shook/, as well as LinkedIn.
John is author of "Managing To Learn", awarded the 2009 Shingo Prize for excellence in manufacturing research and publication, which exposes Toyota's management, problem solving, leadership and mentoring processes. He is co-author with Toshiko Narasawa of "Kaizen Express", and with Mike Rother of "Learning To See", winner of the 1998 Shingo Prize. John was lead author of the "Lean Lexicon" and "Mapping To See". Other notable writings include Sloan Management Review articles, "How To Change a Culture -- NUMMI" (recipient of the Richard Beckhard Award for best article in SMR in 2011) and "Toyota's Secret: The A3 Report", notable book chapters "Bringing The Toyota Production System to America" in "Becoming Lean" edited by Jeffrey Liker and "Lean Product and Process Development" in the "Routledge Guide to Lean Management".
For 11 years John worked for Toyota in Japan and the United States. He joined Toyota in 1983 in Toyota City to help with the process of transferring the company's management and production systems to NUMMI and subsequently to other operations around the world. During his seven-year stay at Toyota's headquarters, he became the company's first American 'Kacho' (manager) in Japan. In the United States, John became a part of Toyota's North American engineering and R&D center in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1991 ss general manager of administration with responsibilities included strategic planning, purchasing, public affairs, and general administration. His last position with Toyota was as senior American manager with the Toyota Supplier Support Center in Lexington, Kentucky, the company's organization to assist the efforts of North American companies to implement TPS.
John is president of two consulting groups, the Lean Transformations Group, LLC, which focuses on the application of lean principles in services, health care and other non-manufacturing settings, and the TWI Network, Inc., a consortium of lean manufacturing experts. John as been Senior Advisor with Dr. James Womack's Lean Enterprise Institute Since its inception in 1997. John was Director of University of Michigan's Japan Technology Management Program, and taught in the university's Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering. He is a lifetime member of the Shingo Academy, member of the Shingo Prize Board of Directors, and frequent presenter at academic and industry forums and is periodically cited in major publications such as Forbes, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Business Week, Time, Automotive News, and others.
