Jeffrey K. Liker Quotes

Automobiles account for about 20 percent of the carbon dioxide from all human sources, yet about one fourth of the world's population enjoys their benefits.

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

We want organizations to be adaptive, flexible, self-renewing, resilient, learning, intelligent — attributes found only in living systems. The tension of our times is that we want our organizations to behave as living systems, but we only know how to treat them as machines. — Margaret J. Wheatley, author of Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time

This operational excellence is based in part on tools and quality improvement methods

In the abstract, science is hard to define, and there are endless philosophical debates over what it means. Rother is not focused as much on defining science per se, but rather on developing a practical approach to teaching people to think scientifically in everyday life. He describes it as:8 a mindset, or way of looking at the world/responding to goals and problems, that’s characterized by . . . Acknowledging that our comprehension is always incomplete and possibly wrong. Assuming that answers will be found by test rather than just deliberation. (You make predictions and test them with experiments.) Appreciating that differences between what we predict will happen and what actually happens can be a useful source of learning and corrective adjustment.

Most Business Processes Are 90% Waste and 10% Value-Added Work

We build cars, not intellectuals

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 use of a good process that engages people is much more desirable, even if it does not initially achieve all the results.

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

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

We strive to decide our own fate. We act with self-reliance, trusting in our own abilities. We accept responsibility for our conduct and for maintaining and improving the skills that enable us to produce added value.

Never be satisfied with inaction. Question and redefine your purpose to attain progress.

One Toyota executive stated the sentiment well, “Team members are the only appreciating asset we have. Everything else starts depreciating from the moment we buy it.

More important than the actual improvements that individuals contribute, the true value of continuous improvement is in creating an atmosphere of continuous learning and an environment that not only accepts, but actually embraces change. Such an environment can only be created where there is respect for people — hence