Jeffrey K. Liker Quotes

Everyone should tackle some great project at least once in their life. I devoted most of my life to inventing new kinds of looms. Now it is your turn. You should make an effort to complete something that will benefit society. (Reingold, 1999)

Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle, a cornerstone of continuous improvement. The Japanese term for continuous improvement is kaizen and is the process of making incremental improvements, no matter how small, and achieving the lean goal of eliminating all waste that adds cost without adding to value.

Figura 5-4. Objetivos «sin compromiso». 1. Alta velocidad, manejabilidad/estabilidad Y AUN ASÍ Una conducción agradable 2. Conducción rápida y suave Y AUN ASÍ Bajo consumo 3. Muy silencioso Y AUN ASÍ Peso ligero 4. Estilo elegante Y AUN ASÍ Gran aerodinámica 5. Acogedor Y AUN ASÍ Interior funcional 6. Gran estabilidad y alta velocidad Y AUN ASÍ Gran valor de CD

Basically people will do what upper management wants them to do. So if that's consistent, if they're not whipsawed and being governed by different priorities, they learn what is truly important and what is not….

We build cars, not intellectuals

No matter how many improvements have been made, every process is still full of waste and rife with opportunity to improve.

Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation (genchi genbutsu).

The Toyota Way, written by the co-author of this book, Jeffrey Liker, summarized the management principles of Toyota in a 4P model: Philosophy, Process, People, and Problem Solving

Senior management is simply a flag bearer when a business decision is made. It is of no use unless others follow the flag. — Eiji Toyoda, former chairman of Toyota

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business. — Henry Ford, innovating automaker

Defining and explaining what the goal is, sharing a path to achieving it, motivating people to take the journey with you, and assisting them by removing obstacles — those are management's reasons for being. We must engage the minds of people to support and contribute their ideas to the organization. In my experience, the Toyota Way is the best method for fulfilling this role.

aggressively. In the case of the G21, he might have neglected it as

All we are doing is looking at the time line from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducing that time line by removing the non-value-added wastes. (Ohno, 1988)

The vision for Lean, I believe, should be achieving operational excellence based on a clearly defined value system and a way of engaging people in Continuous Improvement. The goals can generally be summarized as Safety, Morale, Quality, Cost, and Productivity.

Ownership means once I detect a problem I own it. I am responsible for it.