How to speed up business
processes, improve quality, and cut costs in any industry
In factories around the
world, Toyota consistently makes the highest-quality cars with the fewest defects of any
competing manufacturer, while using fewer man-hours, less on-hand inventory, and half the
floor space of its competitors. The Toyota Way is the first book for a general audience
that explains the management principles and business philosophy behind Toyotas worldwide
reputation for quality and reliability.
Complete with profiles of
organizations that have successfully adopted Toyotas principles, this book shows managers
in every industry how to improve business processes by:
- Eliminating wasted time and
resources
- Building quality into
workplace systems
- Finding low-cost but
reliable alternatives to expensive new technology
- Producing in small
quantities
- Turning every employee into
a qualitycontrol inspector
This book will give you an
understanding of what has made Toyota successful and some practical ideas that you can use
to develop your own approach to business.--Gary Convis, Managing Office of Toyota
Fewer man-hours. Less
inventory. The highest quality cars with the fewest defects of any competing manufacturer.
In factories around the globe, Toyota consistently raises the bar for manufacturing,
product development, and process excellence. The result is an amazing business success
story: steadily taking market share from price-cutting competitors, earning far more
profit than any other automaker, and winning the praise of business leaders worldwide.
The Toyota Way reveals the
management principles behind Toyotas worldwide reputation for quality and reliability. Dr.
Jeffrey Liker, a renowned authority on Toyotas Lean methods, explains how you can adopt
these principles--known as the Toyota Production System or Lean Production--to improve the
speed of your business processes, improve product and service quality, and cut costs, no
matter what your industry.
Drawing on his extensive
research on Toyota, Dr. Liker shares his insights into the foundational principles at work
in the Toyota culture. He explains how the Toyota Production System evolved as a new
paradigm of manufacturing excellence, transforming businesses across industries. Youll
learn how Toyota fosters employee involvement at all levels, discover the difference
between traditional process improvement and Toyotas Lean improvement, and learn why
companies often think they are Lean--but arent.
The fourteen management
principles of the Toyota Way create the ideal environment for implementing Lean techniques
and tools. Dr. Liker explains each key principle with detailed, examples from Toyota and
other Lean companies on how to:
- Foster an atmosphere of
continuous improvement and learning
- Create continuous process
flow to unearth problems
- Satisfy customers (and
eliminate waste at the same time)
- Grow your leaders rather
than purchase them
- Get quality right the first
time
- Grow together with your
suppliers and partners for mutual benefit
Dr. Liker shows the Toyota
Way in action, then outlines how to apply the Toyota Way in your organization, with
examples of how other companies have rebuilt their culture to create a Lean, learning
enterprise. The Toyota Way is an inspiring guide to taking the steps necessary to emulate
Toyotas remarkable success.
What can your business learn from Toyota?
- How to double or triple the
speed of any business process
- How to build quality into
workplace systems
- How to eliminate the huge
costs of hidden waste
- How to turn every employee
into a quality control inspector
- How to dramatically improve
your products and services!
With a market capitalization
greater than the value of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler combined, Toyota is also, (by
far), the worlds most profitable automaker. Toyotas secret weapon is Lean production--the
revolutionary approach to business processes that it invented in the 1950s and has spent
decades perfecting. Today businesses around the world are implementing Toyotas radical
system for speeding up processes, reducing waste, and improving quality.
The Toyota Way, explains
Toyotas unique approach to Lean--the 14 management principles and philosophy that drive
Toyotas quality and efficiency-obsessed culture. Youll gain valuable insights that can be
applied to any organization and any business process, whether in services or
manufacturing. Professor Jeffrey Liker has been studying Toyota for twenty years, and was
given unprecedented access to Toyota executives, employees and factories, both in Japan
and the United States, for this landmark work. The book is full of examples of the 14
fundamental principles at work in the Toyota culture, and how these principles create a
culture of continuous learning and improvement. Youll discover how the right combination
of long-term philosophy, process, people, and problem solving can transform your
organization into a Lean, learning enterprise--the Toyota Way.
Author Biography
Dr. Jeffrey K. Liker is a
professor of industrial and operations engineering at the University of Michigan and
cofounder and director of the Japan Technology Management Program at the University of
Michigan.
330 pages, Hardback