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Is Toyota Still Relevant?

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Is Toyota Still Relevant?

Is Toyota Still Relevant?

A few weeks ago, I decided to participate in the Virtual Lean Mini Conference organized and hosted by Bob Emiliani. The concept is fairly straightforward: participants register, Bob poses a couple of questions, and divides the participants into two groups to argue a position on each question. After preparing one’s analysis of their positions, the entire group meets for a facilitated discussion to present both sides of the arguments. The second question was very straightforward, “Is Toyota Still Relevant?”

This blog post is based on my reflections before and after the conference. So, let’s dig in… Is Toyota still relevant?

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To Understand Lean, You Must Understand More About Toyota

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To Understand Lean, You Must Understand More About Toyota

Why You Should Care About Toyota

If you want to understand and eventually excel at something, you must first understand its history and origins, and then study and practice it daily, seeking coaching and knowledge to refine your skills along your journey.

The same principle applies to “lean”. You can’t really understand it without going back to the source and learning about Toyota, and the Toyota Production System (actually, you need to go back much, much farther but that is beyond the scope of this blog post for now!).

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Opinion: Kaizen or Kaizen "Events"?

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Opinion: Kaizen or Kaizen "Events"?

I’ve seen a lot of kaizen “event” bashing recently. I understand it, I really do. Let’s face it: the problem with the way most organizations “do” kaizen - it is purely event based, often consultant- or specialist-lead, and too few and too far between. And it stays this way, forever.

Lean purists tell everyone, “everyone is responsible for kaizen” and “kaizen happens continuously, on the gemba, don’t wait for an event.”

When I hear this, I envision an ideal state: where we walk to the gemba, and see workers experimenting with their processes, improving them and their products on the spot. Engineering, Quality and Management personnel are there to help remove barriers for the workers to achieve the next level of performance. Everyone knows that it is not just “ok to stop the line” and fix the problem right now... its expected. After all, identifying the root cause of problems, and preventing recurrence, and learning from it to bring more perfect value to our customers is the most important thing to do right now.