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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.
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 book. The Toyota
Way reveals the 14 foundational management principles
behind the automaker's world-famous system of "Lean
production." You'll learn how Toyota creates an ideal
environment for implementing Lean techniques and tools by:
- Fostering an atmosphere of continuous
improvement and learning
- Satisfying customers (and eliminating
waste at the same time)
- Getting quality right the first time
- Grooming leaders from within rather than
recruiting them from the outside
- Teaching all employees to become problem
solvers
- Growing together with suppliers and partners
for mutual benefit
Toyota's Lean production system started
a global revolution in manufacturing and service businesses
that many consider the next phase beyond mass production.
The Toyota Way explains how Toyota's production system
evolved as a new paradigm of manufacturing excellence, and
describes companies in industries as diverse as aluminum
gutters, engineering, ship construction and repair, and
service parts warehousing, that are using Toyota's methods
to dramatically improve their performance.
But many companies who think they are Lean
-- aren't. The book explains how to get beyond a focus on
the surface tools and techniques of Lean by creating a Toyota-style
culture of quality -- a Lean, learning enterprise. You'll
learn how to improve the speed of your business processes,
improve product and service quality, and cut costs, no matter
what your industry. The Toyota Way is an inspiring
guide to taking the steps necessary to emulate Toyota's
remarkable success.
Jeffrey K. Liker, Ph.D., is Professor
of industrial and Operations Engineering at the University
of Michigan, and cofounder and Director of the Japan Technology
Management Program and the Lean Manufacturing and Lean Product
Development Certificate Programs at the university. Winner
of four Shingo Prizes for Excellence, Dr. Liker's writings
on Toyota have appeared in The Harvard Business Review,
Sloan Management Review, and other leading publications.
Dr. Liker is a principal of Optiprise, a Lean enterprise/supply
chain management consulting firm, and was the editor of
Becoming Lean: Experiences of U.S. Manufacturers,
which won the 1998 Shigeo Shingo prize for excellence in
manufacturing research.
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