The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement: Linking Strategy and Operational Excellence to Achieve Superior Performance
Chapter 2 PDCA and Striving for Excellence
Chapter 3 How Process Improvement Can Develop Exceptional People
Chapter 4 Lean Processes Start with a Purpose
Chapter 5 Lean Out Processes or Build Lean Systems?
Section Two Case Studies of Lean Transformation through PDCA
Chapter 6 When Organic Meets Mechanistic: Lean Overhaul and Repair of Ships (with Robert Kucner)
Chapter 7 An Australian Sensei Teaches a Proud Japanese Company New Tricks: Bringing TPS to a Complex Equipment Manufacturer (with Tony McNaughton)
Chapter 8 Lean Iron-Ore Mining in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia
Chapter 9 Bringing Ford's Ideas Alive at Henry Ford Health System Labs through PDCA Leadership (with Dr. Richard Zarbo)
Chapter 10 Teaching Individuals to Fly by the Numbers: Transforming Health-Care Processes (with Steve Hoeft)
Chapter 11 Transforming How Products Are Engineered at North American Automotive Supplier (with Charlie Baker)
Chapter 12 Going Nuclear with Lean (with John Drogosz)
Section Three Making Your Vision a Reality
Chapter 13 One Time around the Plan–Do–Check–Adjust (PDCA) Loop: A Lean Short Story at Alte Schule
Chapter 14 Sustaining, Spreading, Deepening: Continuing Turns of the PDCA Wheel
Chapter 15 Continuous Improvement as a Way of Life
A lean blueprint for creating long-term sustainability the Toyota way!
Winner of the 2012 Shingo Research and Professional Publications Award
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