This is a must have for any manager or business administrator. My only observation is that some of the chapters are too long in making the point accross. Otherwise, it's an excellent reference to "copy with pride" the best practices from a great company.

"I have visited hundreds of companies and taught employees from over one thousand companies. I have compared notes with many of those I have taught. I have also visted a number of the U.S plants that were fortunate to have received assistance from TSSC, which has consistently helped companies achive a level of improvement like "Lean Company X". Unfortunately, I see a persistent trend in the inability of these companies to implement TPS and lean. Over time, the lean production line TSSC sets up degrades rather than improves...There is a "lean production cell" here and a pull system there and the time it takes to changeover a press to a new product has been reduced, but there is where the resemblance to an actual Toyota lean model ends."

Why has American Automotive technology slow to adopt the Toyota Way? Three forces: political protectism, cheap resources, and well established marketing channels. However, as fuel prices continue to escalate, innovative automotive solutions will be rewarded and brand will have less loyality. Toyota claims that their line workers are among the best and brightest minds and their ideas are used to solve problems.

TPS has potential. TPS advocates continual learning through eliminating waste, remove unnecessary labor, to see for yourself and understand the situation, and making decisions slowly by consensus. A circular cycle of gathering information and thinking about the completeness of the problem. All things must be considered in the model. Respect for people: leaders a mentored in the TPS system; TPS challenges employees to develop skills, verbalize ideas and innovations, be loyal to the company, and work in small teams. TPS weakness is that they listen and choose a leader basis on reputation and not merit. A well connected and respect leader has great pull in the organization. A brillant young leader has a difficult time rising to the top without sponsership.

The TPS system is focuses on process and uses a vast number of tools to surface problems. A number of techniques help expose problems, such as, pull systems where the one product at a time is completely built and any error in the process will stop the whole factory. The immediately identification of the problems is brought to the foremost attention of everyone in the plant. TPS process assists external processes, for example after one of the earthquakes, a major parts supplier was offline and Toyota used this supplier exclusive, for parts. Toyota sent 300 engineers to help get the company online.

TPS levels out workload, reduces overtime, and promotes happier employees through empowerment. Tasks are standardized for continueous improvement.

Visual controls are used so problems do not hide, inventory build up, and waste go unnoticed. TPS uses reliable and tested technology. Japan uses four times as many robots as the US. The automated factory has been both a cost saver and a production gainer for Japanese companies. TPS works to establish long term goals. One weakness of TPS long term goal planning is that the consumer never know about it.

In TPS information can use internal and external information given by the consumer; more consumer participation and involvement in the company is encouraged. The phrase "Oh what a feeling, Toyota" should mean the consumer is content with the long term goals and planning provided by Toyota and the consumer plans on support the future by investing in Toyota through purchases.

"Operational efficiency by itself canbe dangerous. Think of the Swiss companies that were so efficient in making mechanical watches yet are now out of business."

"Kaizen teaches individuals skills for working effectively in small groups, solving problems, documenting and improving processes, colling and analyzing data, and self-managing within a peer group. It pushes the decision making down to th workers and requires open discussion and group consensus before implementing a decision." Kaizen takes a strong commitment by senior management, so that individuals can participate effectively without fear. TPS creates "a new way in manufacturing or service delivery - a new way of seeing, understanding, and intrepreting what is happening in a production process, that could propel them beyond the mass production." Lean production focused on speed in the supply chain by "shortening the lead time by eliminating waste in each step of a process leads to best quality and lowest cost, while improving safety and morale."

The first question TPS asks is, "what does the customer want"? The question is directed at both the internal and external customer.

According to TPS there are eight types of waste: Overproduction, Waiting, Unnecessary transport or conveyance, overprocessing or incorrect processing, excess inventory, unnecessary movement, defects, and unused employee creativity. Ohno said, "Every method available for man-hour reduction must, of course, be pursued vigorously; but we must never forget that safety is the foundation of all our activities." There are times improvement will compromise safety. In that case start over and take another look at the operation. "Never be satisified with inaction". Jikodka or in-station quality allows separates the person from the machine. Now the individual is free to be creative and observe improvement. Respect for the individual improves morale and brings more ideas into materialization. Just in Time technology employees pull technology and reduces excess inventory.

My employer has been implementing the Lean Concepts. I was a bit lost with alot of the terminology. Now that I have read most of the book, it has help me understand the terminology and I link it to the concept. I can't wait to finish reading it.

We have purchased 22 Audio versions of the Toyota Way because our Employees love listening to these CDs.

I am on my third reading of this book. It is a classic and greatly enjoyable as well as educational and informative. I think every manufacturing professional should read it. I also recommend the book Lean Six Sigma That Works: A Powerful Action Plan for Dramatically Improving Quality, Increasing Speed, And Reducing Waste

Jeffrey Liker clearly knows what he writes about. The book is the result of more than a decade of study, on site visits and interviews with several Toyota key people. It describes 14 toyota principles, which go through the Toyota Philosophy, the Toyota Production System, the relationship with employeees, customers, suppliers and partners, and a focus on continuous improvement. No wonder Toyota is one of world top most admired companies!
Very interesting is also the Japanese management principles and mindset - slow but determined, patient, self-reflection, learning by actuall observation and doing, consensus seeking, and managing for the long term.
By coincidence, yesterday (6/Sep/2007) the news came up that Jim Press (American Toyota President)was hired by Chrysler - I can imagine why.

A good book on the Toyota Production System (TPS) and Lean manufacturing. Liker does a good job of explaining both. I especially liked his cautions about mis-using Lean principles and pitfalls to failure.

Like most business books, the important stuff could have been expressed in many fewer pages. Liker almost gushes about Toyota to the extent that it somethimes reads as a vanity or promotional publication by Toyota - this makes me wonder if it really presents a balanced perspective.

Overall, I recommend it to anyone interested in Toyota or Lean.

Great expose of the attitude of one of the worlds most impressive business organizations. Detailed, but not cumbersome. More than just another "how to" manual. A "must read" for decision makers in any business.

Any business owner, manager or individual team member who wonders how companies improve should read this. If you wonder why some people love lean processes while others say it does not work should read this book.

I've been a manufacturing engineer since 1981, and I joined a lot of start-up companies because I love the growth and development phase of building a company up. Some worked, some did not. This book has a nice way of explaining what Toyota does and what the others fail to do.

One of my clients saw this book in an airport stand and asked me if it was worth reading. I read the book out of mere curiosity and was totally engrossed. It is well-organized, simple, and clear. While not all companies can implement the Toyota Production System, there are certainly great ideas in this book that can be implemented by any company.

This book is a revelation on the Toyota Production System and it is scary to behold. Nobody can stand before the might of the logic presented by a writer who lives and breathes his format and hence brings its genius to life. With these systems in place Toyota is relentless and brilliant, and makes your own workplace seem inefficient and non-competitive by comparison. Many good examples are provided about how to apply the Toyota Way to different work environments, be they manufacturing or customer service.

What can I say. Awesome book that can really help you understand manufacturing in the MODERN world.

Good book. I'm taking a grad class and it will definitely be a help for me when I do my project.

Knowing all the lean tools and having implemented many of them, there still seems to be something missing. While this book discusses the Lean tools, it also discusses what makes them effective. It discusses, the history, mindset, and environment that created and made Lean Manufacturing today.

This book is not for the Lean Champion but for the CEO, the Divisional VP, the Plant Manager, especially in those situations where Lean just has not or is not living up to the expectations.

Book is an excellent guide to "thinking outside the box" to adapt conveyer line assembly work to construction projects.

Good book about Toyota's origins and culture. Good book for everyone interested in manufacturing.

Since the author is a professor, I'd originally hoped for a balanced coverage. But the book did not explore the shortcomings of The Toyota Way. Knowing both the pros and cons would have given us a much deeper understanding.

For example, the American auto companies are still in business long after Japanese cars surpassed American cars in quality -- so the American companies must have done something right, too, like inventing the minivan and SUV markets. Therefore, there's got to be some strategic shortcomings of The Toyota Way.

Another example... the book's case study of the new Sienna minivan is not such a shining example, in my opinion. The chief engineer has to drive across North America to discover the advantage of having multiple cup holders??? American cars/vans have had that feature for years! He had to observe the loading of wood planks into a Honda Odyssey to be convinced for the large body size??? Then "The Honda Way" was already better than "The Toyota Way", and in any case, all American vans/trucks have had the size advantage for decades! Besides, reading an issue of The Consumer Report magazine could give you the same info. So, the question is not how "The Toyota Way" helped discovering those good features in the car, but why it took so long?

Despite the above, I think this is a great book that clearly articulated The Toyota Way from technique to philosophy. Recommended!

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.

A good behind the scenes type of book. Interesting to learn why Toyota is one of the big three automakers.

This book brings it all together under 14 principles. It is a good book for those who would like to learn about Toyota's success.

On disk # 2 some of the tracks "skip" when played and are inaubible. Have not yet played all of the disks, but was disappointed to find this lack of quality - especially when the book topic stresses the importance of quality.

Toyota is the difference. A lot of people talk about lean this and lean that while bowing down to IT and accounting and brag about how lean allowed them to eliminate 'x headcount.' Toyota defines what it means to be lean. Their Toyota Way depends on two pillars: Continuous Improvement and Respect for People. A lot of companies who think they are lean neglect the second principle.

Toyota Way focuses on the managment principles that have evolved from the time of Toyoda Loom to make the company what it is today. It talks about the Toyota Production System as well. The book is well written and entertaining - but I am a dork and like reading these kinds of books for leisure anyways.

I found this book to be very useful in describing the overall Toyota philosophy as well as the principles of Lean Manufacturing. If you desire to build a business based on continuous process improvement, superior customer value and long-term thinking, this book provides an excellent model for building your own corporate culture along a proven Toyota methodology. I ordered additional copies for all of our Sr Mgmt...excellent book...highly recommended.

I enjoyed this book and learned a lot from it. The book is not a fun vacation poolside read, but it is not a totally boring academic text either. If you work in a large-scale manufacturing facility, or if you are just curious about best practices in business, The Toyota Way is like gospel. This book covers all of the hip Japanese shop floor slang, such as muda, genchi genbutsu and nemawashi. There are informative diagrams, thorough explanations and good business anecdotes throughout the book.

You might also like the book 'All I Need to Know About Manufacturing I Learned in Joe's Garage' by William B. Miller, which is an elegantly simple read about the fundamentals of The Toyota Way.

As you can check the 4Ps and the 14 management principles typed by some reviewers here, most of them are just common sense. However, common sense is really not that common, at least not in the auto industry when one sees the high failure rate, even amongst Japanese auto makers who copy some but not all of the Toyota Way or Toyota Production System TPS. Thanks to the author, many good samples are vividly written of how Toyota fully commits to its long term principles at the expense of short term benefits, respects the communities where its factories locate, supports even the lowest of worker to quality/value devotion (Dare you stop the whole production line for a minor fault you find? They encourage you to do so in Toyota). I am sure many ordinary but top level managers will excuse themselves from the level of Toyota committment on unique circumstances. In Toyota, they ask themselves "why" five times on each problem to nail its root cause, instead of taking anything for granted, as those ordinary managers do. Moreover, Toyota had invested/devoted much to adapt to the cultural, social....difference between Japan and US. Add them all up, that's the difference between survival and death.

I had read many business books of the HBR type. However, if I am asked to make only one recommendation, this is it.

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

This book is interesting, but I wish there were more anecdotes. The principles are repeated over and over and the book is a difficult read. I find myself only able to go for 30 minutes at a time max. Does contain some valuable information, but it could be condensed to less than half as long.

The author provides a clear and precise explanation of each of the 14 points he says are the heart of "The Toyota Way" of doing business. I listened to the audio version of the book in preparation for the beginning of a business relationship with Toyota. It did a fantastic job of giving me insight into the Toyota culture and principles of doing business. Great reading for anyone interested in the automotive industry, or students of industry in general!

This is one of a good book on productivity improvement.

For the American boss, if you want to implement TPS( Toyota production system ), then you need to change the working culture in your organization.

As a boss , if you think you are not the type of person as indicated in this book (like to dirty your hands ) and you want to implement TPS ; Get a General Manager who have the determination to implement TPS , give him full responsibility to implement.

As a word of caution , employing a TPS consultant will only survive as long as the consultant is around, once the consultant left, the working culture will be back to its original form .

This is an excellent, in-depth examination of the Totoya Way and the Toyota Production System. A must read for anyone wanting to understand the culture that is the foundation of lean production. Useful information can be gleaned and adapted to almost any profession, not just manufacturing. Well worth reading.

A good read and a great understanding of the successes achieved by the new number one automaker in the US. These principles are applicable universally accross business models from manufacturing to service based industry. This is the business model to strive for going forward.

Very interesting real life example of what Lean Thinking is all about. Also, a very interesting look into how corporate culture has such a strong impact on the business.

For a person not involved in the manufacturing sector and yet interested in maximizing Church resources especially volunteers and paid ministers the book was thought provoking and insightful. The book's simple and easy to read format help me see ways and opportunities to use this material as I consult with churches and schools. The fourteen steps provided a strong methodology and systematic way of learning and implementing the concepts. Finally, it created a new way of looking at the importance of measurements and how to integrated change into the entire organizational culture. Thanks for the excellent gift to the management literature

It motivates you to think BIG and then give everything to achieve your goals.

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).