SubscribeElsewhere on Autolust: Honda Civic | Toyota Corolla | Honda Fit | Toyota Camry | Prius | Lexus | Ford Escape | Tokyo Motor Show | Honda |
# 4 Blogger
Lean
Lean (www.leanblog.org) has great Toyota news, photos, videos and more
Friday, Oct 30
Toyota article from 1997 - the "Soul" of TPS that's hard to copy
Two days a month, more than 50 automotive executives and engineers travel to a sprawling manufacturing complex in Georgetown, Ky., to learn how Toyota makes cars. The tours, which include an intensive question-and-answer session, last five hours and are booked months in advance. Althou...
Tuesday, Oct 27
Ten (Mostly) Common Misconceptions About Toyota & Lean
Understanding the current condition.Developing and defining a target condition.Understanding and tackling problems which need to be overcome to move from the current condition to the target condition.That's far more important than individual tools, like 5S and kanban. Misconceptio...
Thursday, Oct 15
Lean Methods for Aerospace and Healthcare in Ontario
St. Joe's partnership with Toyota came together somewhat serendipitously after a family member of the head of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, Ray Tanguay, became a patient at the hospital. In the hours Mr. Tanguay subsequently spent at the hospital, he started to notice ways the autom...
Saturday, Oct 3
Leadership Lessons from Larry Kellner
This interview with Larry Keller, CEO of Continental Airlines, had elements of "Like Lean" -- ideas that are similar to Toyota Production System or Lean approaches. Sometimes it's just coincidence or common sense (like here) or the people involved are just downplaying Toyota connecti...
Sunday, Feb 15
Toyota's Buyouts and New Leadership
Taking the Wheel as Toyota Skids - NYTimes.com Toyota said it expected to schedule another series of nonproduction days at some of its American plants in April. During those periods, its workers are paid, but take training classes and perform repairs on the assembly line.
Saturday, Jan 3
Dr. Berwick and Lean in Business Week
Other industries had long ago started managing for continual improvement in products, services, cost structures," says Dr. Berwick, who toured Bell Labs, NASA, and Toyota (TM) in the late '80s to see how those organizations approached quality control. "I soon realized that there was a n...
Thursday, Dec 11
Gary Convis for "Car Czar"
You say you object to putting a former Toyota boss in charge of GM, Ford and Chrysler?Convis DID work for both Ford and GM before Toyota. I think Convis is a great leader, he's a manufacturing guy, and a "gemba" guy. Who better to put some sense into the industry?? Click the "Convis" link below t...
Wednesday, Nov 26
What It Means to Lead
Authority is responsibility. Authority is accountability. It is not power." That sounds like a good motto for leaders. Is this the latest from a Toyota leader, like Gary Convis? No, it's actually from a speech by the new Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church in America, It reminds me of Toyota-...
Friday, Nov 21
New Technology That Doesn’t Serve The Passenger?
Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes. (Rule 8 of The Toyota Way) Log into American website on PC (same for 1, 2, 3). Moderate hassle factor (why does the website NEVER remember who I am, even though I always click the “Remember Me” button?)
Friday, Aug 8
Toyota, Layoffs, Stabbings, and Respect for People
Japanese automaker Toyota has laid off 800 people at a plant in southwestern Japan, or about 10 percent of the plant's work force, in response to declining sales in North America, a company official said Tuesday.All the job cuts — carried out in June and August at Toyota Motor Corp.'s wholly...
Tuesday, Jun 10
Chrysler matches Toyota in a Single Skew-able Metric - Who Cares?
Chrysler is crowing about efficiency gains -- matching Toyota. That may be true if you're looking at a single narrow metric -- direct labor hours per vehicle. This metric isn't a proxy for a company's overall financial performance, as the long-term profit and outlook gap between Chrysler...
Wednesday, Jun 4
Opinion: Toyota to Pay for Kaizen OT in Japan
Prompted by a ruling over a death from overwork, Toyota Motor Corp. will pay full overtime to factory workers engaged in after-hour kaizen activities designed to improve efficiency and product quality, sources said. Toyota plans to encourage workers to review and simplify QC activitie...
Sunday, Apr 20
Opinion: The Dispersion of Toyota Talent
Mr. Farley rode the fast track at Toyota. He moved to Europe in 1995 and helped introduce versions of the Yaris minicar and the Corolla compact. He also became obsessed with what cars people drove and why. The truth, as he saw it at Toyota, was all about the customer — unlike at some other automake...
Sunday, Feb 24
A "Lean" Article that Doesn't Mention Real Lean
Turning Chrysler Into Toyota Adopting the Toyota culture might not be enough to save a business like Chrysler... but it would also be interesting to hear if they're trying to make the organization operate more like Toyota. Who is writing about that? Anyone have any articles or links to share?
