Toyota Production System

Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production
by Taiichi Ohno and Norman Bodek
Published 1 Jan 1978

And kanban is the means used for conveying information about picking up or receiving the production order. Kanban will be described later in detail. Here, I want the reader to understand the basic posture of the Toyota production system. The system is supported by the just-in-time system, already discussed, and autonomation, described in the next section. The kanban method is the means by which the Toyota production system moves smoothly. ► Give the Machine Intelligence The other pillar of the Toyota production system is called autonomation - not to be confused with simple automation. It is also known as automation with a human touch. Many machines operate by themselves once the switch is turned on.

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When one looks up, the andon (the line stop indication board) comes into view, showing the location and nature of trouble situations at a glance. Furthermore, boxes containing parts brought to the side of the production line arrive with an attached kanban, the visual symbol of the Toyota production system. Here, however, I want to discuss the standard work sheet as a means of visual control, which is how the Toyota production system is managed. Standard work sheets and the information contained in them are important elements of the Toyota production system. For a production person to be able to write a standard work sheet that other workers can understand, he or she must be convinced of its importance. We have eliminated waste by examining available resources, rearranging machines, improving machining processes, installing autonomous systems, improving tools, analyzing transportation methods, and optimizing the amount of materials at hand for machining.

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This will meet with lots of resistance and requires courage. The greater the commitment, however, the more successful will be the implementation of the Toyota production system. In the 30 years since I moved from textiles to the world of automobiles, I have worked continuously to develop and promote the Toyota production system, even though I doubted my ability to succeed. This may sound presumptuous, but the growth of the Toyota production system has tended to coincide with the growth of my own responsibilities at Toyota. In 1949-1950, as manager of the machine shop in what is now the main plant, I made the first step toward the "Just-intime" idea.

Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business
by David J. Anderson
Published 6 Apr 2010

Although I was aware of this mechanism, I was not convinced that it was either a useful or a viable technique for application to knowledge work and specifically software engineering. I understood that a kanban system would enable a sustainable pace. However, I was not aware of its reputation as a method for driving incremental process improvement. I was unaware that Taiichi Ohno, one of the creators of the Toyota Production System had said, “The two pillars of the Toyota production system are just-in-time and automation with a human touch, or autonomation. The tool used to operate the system is kanban.” In other words, kanban is fundamental to the kaizen (“continuous improvement”) process used at Toyota. It is the mechanism that makes it work.

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In fact, in October 2003 I wrote to David, saying, “One of the great weaknesses of TOC is its underemphasis of the importance of batch size. If your first priority is to find and reduce the constraint you are often solving the wrong problem.” I still believe this is true. In our 2005 meeting I again encouraged David to look beyond the bottleneck focus of TOC. I explained to him that the dramatic success of the Toyota Production System (TPS) had nothing to do with finding and eliminating bottlenecks. Toyota’s performance gains came from using batch-size reduction and variability reduction to reduce work-in-process inventory. It was the reduction in inventory that unlocked the economic benefits, and it was WIP-constraining systems like kanban that made this possible.

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It was the reduction in inventory that unlocked the economic benefits, and it was WIP-constraining systems like kanban that made this possible. By the time I visited Corbis in 2007 I saw an impressive implementation of a kanban system. I pointed out to David that he had progressed far beyond the kanban approach used by Toyota. Why did I say this? The Toyota Production System is elegantly optimized to deal with repetitive and predictable tasks: tasks with homogeneous task durations and homogeneous delay costs. Under such conditions it is correct to use approaches like first-in-first-out (FIFO) prioritization. It is also correct to block the entry of work when the WIP limit is reached. However, these approaches are not optimal when we must deal with non-repetitive, unpredictable jobs; with different delay costs; and different task durations—exactly what we must deal with in product development.

Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time
by Jeff Sutherland and Jj Sutherland
Published 29 Sep 2014

An “impediment” is an idea that comes from the company that first formed a lot of the ideas Scrum is based on: Toyota. And, more specifically, Taiichi Ohno’s Toyota Production System. I won’t go into all the details here, but one of the key concepts that Ohno introduced is the idea of “flow.” That is, production should flow swiftly and calmly throughout the process, and, he said, one of management’s key tasks is to identify and remove impediments to that flow. Everything that stands in the way is waste. Ohno gives waste a moral, as well as a business, value in his classic book, The Toyota Production System: It is not an exaggeration that in a low-growth period such waste is a crime against society more than a business loss.

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But while Scrum has become famously successful in managing software and hardware projects in Silicon Valley, it remains relatively unknown in general business practice. And that is why I wrote Scrum: to reveal and explain the Scrum management system to businesses outside the world of technology. In the book I talk about the origins of Scrum in the Toyota Production System and the OODA loop of combat aviation. I discuss how we organize projects around small teams—and why that is such an effective way to work. I explain how we prioritize projects, how we set up one-week to one-month “sprints” to gain momentum and hold everyone on the team accountable, how we conduct brief daily stand-ups to keep tabs on what has been done and on the challenges that have inevitably cropped up.

The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
by Eric Ries
Published 13 Sep 2011

I began to search outside entrepreneurship for ideas that could help me make sense of my experience. I began to study other industries, especially manufacturing, from which most modern theories of management derive. I studied lean manufacturing, a process that originated in Japan with the Toyota Production System, a completely new way of thinking about the manufacturing of physical goods. I found that by applying ideas from lean manufacturing to my own entrepreneurial challenges—with a few tweaks and changes—I had the beginnings of a framework for making sense of them. This line of thought evolved into the Lean Startup: the application of lean thinking to the process of innovation.

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To translate those instincts into data, entrepreneurs must, in Steve Blank’s famous phrase, “get out of the building” and start learning. GENCHI GEMBUTSU The importance of basing strategic decisions on firsthand understanding of customers is one of the core principles that underlies the Toyota Production System. At Toyota, this goes by the Japanese term genchi gembutsu, which is one of the most important phrases in the lean manufacturing vocabulary. In English, it is usually translated as a directive to “go and see for yourself” so that business decisions can be based on deep firsthand knowledge.

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The team would be able immediately to assess the impact of their work, evaluate its effect on customers, and decide what to do next. For tiny changes, the whole process might be repeated several times per day. In fact, in the aggregate, IMVU makes about fifty changes to its product (on average) every single day. Just as with the Toyota Production System, the key to being able to operate this quickly is to check for defects immediately, thus preventing bigger problems later. For example, we had an extensive set of automated tests that assured that after every change our product still worked as designed. Let’s say an engineer accidentally removed an important feature, such as the checkout button on one of our e-commerce pages.

Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business
by Charles Duhigg
Published 8 Mar 2016

When Madrid showed up for this interview, however, he suspected things might be different this time. GM was partnering with the Japanese automaker Toyota to reopen the Fremont plant. For Toyota, this was a chance to build cars inside the United States and expand the company’s sales in America. For General Motors, it was an opportunity to learn about the famed “Toyota Production System,” which was producing cars of very high quality at very low costs in Japan. One hitch in the partnership was that GM’s agreement with the UAW dictated that the plant had to hire at least 80 percent of its workers from employees who had been laid off two years earlier. So Madrid and his friends were showing up, one by one, to interview with New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc., or NUMMI.

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He expressed all these frustrations to his interviewers and then kicked himself on the long drive home. He really needed this job. He should have kept his mouth shut. A few days later, Madrid got the call. The Japanese executives had appreciated his honesty and were offering him a job. First, though, he would have to go to Japan for two weeks and learn about the Toyota Production System. Sixteen days later, NUMMI flew Madrid and about two dozen other workers to the Takaoka auto plant outside Toyota City, Japan, the first in a series of trips nearly every employee at NUMMI would take. When Madrid walked into the Japanese factory, he saw familiar assembly lines and heard the recognizable sounds of pneumatic tools hissing and buzzing.

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One day he shadowed a worker who, midway through a shift, told a manager he had an idea for a new tool that would help him install struts. The manager walked to the machine shop and returned fifteen minutes later with a prototype. The worker and manager refined the design throughout the day. The next morning, everyone had their own versions of the tool waiting at their stations. Madrid’s trainers explained that the Toyota Production System—which in the United States would become known as “lean manufacturing”—relied on pushing decision making to the lowest possible level. Workers on the assembly line were the ones who saw problems first. They were closest to the glitches that were inevitable in any manufacturing process. So it only made sense to give them the greatest authority in finding solutions.

Arriving Today: From Factory to Front Door -- Why Everything Has Changed About How and What We Buy
by Christopher Mims
Published 13 Sep 2021

It’s a mix of surveillance, measurement, psychological tricks, targets, incentives, sloganeering, Jeff Bezos’s trademark hard-charging attitude toward work, and an ever-growing array of clever and often proprietary technologies. Taken as a whole, this system is unique enough in the history of work that it deserves its own name: Bezosism. After Taylorism, Fordism, the Toyota Production System, and dozens of other sectarian management philosophies, it has come to this. There have been many attempts to describe Bezosism, or at least its constituent parts. That I find all of them insufficient in their scope and descriptive power is one reason you’re reading this book. Those who have come the closest talk about “digital Taylorism,” “neo-Taylorism,” “management by algorithm,” or “algorithmic despotism.”

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No other company on Earth today is as well resourced, talent-rich, ruthless, or fast-moving as Amazon when it comes to tightly coupled systems of machines and humans, AI and wetware, robots and bodies. Taylorism was developed by many, but it is deservedly known by the name of its most vocal proponent. Fordism was the product of a team of clever and hardworking engineers, but it is known by the name of the man without whom it would not have coalesced. The Toyota Production System evolved by trial and error on the part of a handful of the firm’s leaders, but it is known by the name of the company that pioneered it. In turn, Jeff Bezos deserves credit for and should be identified with Bezosism. At this very moment, Bezosism is diffusing through the world of work, rewriting the source code of the global industrial machine.

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Imagine what time and motion experts Frank and Lillian Gilbreth could have accomplished had they been able to discard their film cameras and replace them with millions of hours of video captured from the digital cameras that watch every station at many of Amazon’s fulfillment centers. Imagine how much additional just-in-time efficiency in inventory levels, capital allocation, and automated reordering Taiichi Ohno and Eiji Toyoda, creators of the Toyota Production System, would be able to extract from a system that knew the precise moment an associate plucked an item from a shelf and sent it on its way. Amazon borrows directly from all of these systems, but the company’s special twist, that floating rate that all workers must hit, is what makes its facilities particularly Darwinian.

Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors
by Edward Niedermeyer
Published 14 Sep 2019

Edwards, 56 Department of Energy (DOE) loans from, 68–89, 118, 120, 121 as shareholder of Tesla, 82–86, 90 detractors, 102–108 Detroit, Michigan, 2, 4 Detroit Auto Show, 68 disruptive innovator, Tesla as, 195–197 DOE. see Department of Energy doors falcon-wing, 137–141 gull-wing, 136–137 Downey, California, 76 Drori, Ze’ev, 49–50, 65 Dunlay, Jim, 58 E Eberhard, Martin as advocate of Tesla, 67 founding of Tesla by, 21–24, 27–31, 35, 37–40 ouster of, 44–48, 50, 79 EBITDA, 215 Eisner, Michael, 45 Electrek, 97–101 electric vehicles (EVs), 3, 12–14, 24, 77, 202, 207 Energy Independence and Security Act, 67 Enron, 105 environmental issues, 112–113, 119 Esquire, 61 e-tron quattro, 203 EV1, 13, 24, 34 EVs. see electric vehicles F Facebook, 41 Falcon One, 28 falcon-wing doors, 137–141 FCW (Forward Collision Warning), 125 Ferrari, 60, 200–201 Fiat, 11, 34 financial crisis (2008), 75–76, 105 fixed costs, 54 Flextronics, 47 FOIA (Freedom of Information Act), 72, 131 Ford, Henry, 56, 194 Ford Focus, 159 Ford Fusion, 75 Ford Motor Company, 3, 4, 56, 75, 181, 194, 204, 216 Forward Collision Warning (FCW), 125 Founders Edition Roadster, 215 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 72, 131 Fremont, California, 53, 206, 218 funding (fundraising), 29, 40, 44–47, 50, 69–71, 85 G Gage, Tom, 27–29 Galileo Galilei, 105 Gao Yaning, 128 Gartner, 175 gas prices, 11, 14 General Motors (GM). see also specific models bankruptcy and bailout of, 2–3, 88 and electric cars, 11–13, 34 Impact concept car, 24 and Lotus, 36, 37, 53 OnStar system, 194 Germany, 203, 204 Ghosn, Carlos, 197–200 Gigafactory, 77, 183–184, 189, 218 GM. see General Motors G170J1-LE1 screens, 228 Goodwill Agreements, 149 Google, 44, 120–124, 171 Graham, Paul, 41 “A Grain of Salt” (blog post), 152–153 Grant, Charley, 100 “green car” companies, 11 GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT), 95–97 gull-wing doors, 136–137 H Harrigan, Mike, 30 Harris Ranch, 115–116, 119 Harvard Business School, 195 herd mentality, 96 Hethel, England, 49 Hoerbiger, 138–140 Holzhausen, Franz von, 137 Honda, 201 “How to Be Silicon Valley” (speech by Paul Graham), 41 Hyperloop, 16, 88, 217 I IDEO, 38 IGBT (insulated-gate bipolar transistor), 49 Impact concept car, 13, 24 imperfection, 55 incumbent companies, 196–197 innovation, 193–210 by Citroën, 193–195 disruptive, 195–197 by Carlos Ghosn, 197–200 by Tesla, 201–210 “Innovation Killers: How Financial Tools Destroy Your Capacity to Do New Things” (Christensen), 196–197 The Innovator’s Dilemma, 197 insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), 49 internal conflict, 29–32 InvestorsHub, 99 Israel, 4, 12 J Jaguar I-PACE, 202–203 Jivan, Jon, 98 Jonas, Adam, 172 K kaizen, 58, 60 Krafcik, John, 176 L Lambert, Fred, 98–101 Lamborghini, 204 Land Rover, 60 lead-acid batteries, 23–24, 197 Leech, Keith, 146–147, 156 Level 4 autonomous cars, 175–176 Level 5 autonomous cars, 170, 172, 175–176, 178 Lexus, 204 lithium-ion batteries, 22–24, 26, 34 “long tailpipe,” 110 losses, 11 Lotus, 36–37, 38, 43, 44, 49, 59 Lotus Elise, 28, 36, 37, 38, 40, 43 Lotus Evora, 59 “Ludicrous Mode,” 16 Lyons, Dave, 64 M Mac, Ryan, 218 Magna Powertrain, 48–49 Magna Steyr, 202 manufacturing, 180–192 of batteries, 183–184, 188–189 and continuous reiteration of Model 3s, 182–192 Elon Musk on, 180–182 preproduction as, 187–188 Marchionne, Sergio, 11 market saturation, 10 Marks, Michael, 47, 48, 50 Mars, 25 “Master Plan, Part Deux” (blog post), 164 McLaren F1, 25–26, 39 media hype, 88, 90–91, 93–95, 97–102, 130, 211–224 and base version of Model 3, 220–224 Elon Musk as cause of, 217–224 at Semi/Roadster unveiling, 211–215 as stock price stimulant, 215–216 Menlo Park, California, 28, 58 Michelin, 194 Miles, 11 Mobileye, 167–170 mobility technology, 11 Model 3, 8–10, 180–182 base version of, 220–224 production of, 182–192 Model S, 15, 74–75, 81–84, 90, 99, 135–137. see also Whitestar Model T, 56 Model X, 101, 134–145 Model Year 2008, 69 Moggridge, Bill, 38–39 Montana Skeptic, 105–108 Morgan Stanley, 172 Morris, Charles, 43 Motley Fool, 98 Musk, Elon on belief, 21 and branding of Tesla, 16–17 as cause of media hype, 217–224 childhood and personality of, 25–26 clientele knowledge of, 60 “cluelessness” of, 33–35 and culture of Tesla, 60 and Daimler, 68 detractors of, 102–108 and electric cars, 25–28 and Elise-Roadster conversion, 38–39 on financial viability of Tesla, 72–73 and fundraising, 44, 69–71 and loans, 70, 78 on manufacturing, 180–181, 190 on Model 3, 8–9 on Model S, 74 on Model X, 144–145 on obstacles faced by Tesla, 46 offers of, to sell Tesla, 120–121 on price increases, 71 and production process, 142, 165 as public figure, 15 on Series D, 47 and JB Straubel, 26 and stress, 64–67, 77–78 and Superchargers, 109–119 and Tesla cofounders, 29–32, 45, 47–48 on Tesla’s master plan, 21–22, 30–31, 58, 163 at town hall meeting, 70–71 and Whitestar, 51 Musk, Errol, 25 Musk, Justine, 25–26 Musk, Kimball, 65 N National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 66 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 127, 131–132, 149–162 National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), 132, 167 NDAs. see non-disclosure agreements Neil, Dan, 59 Neuralink, 16, 217 New Mexico, 48, 67 New United Motor Manufacturing, 53 New York Times, 2, 30, 66 NHTSA. see National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Nissan Leaf, 198 Nissan-Renault Alliance, 197–200, 207 Noble M12, 27 nondisclosure agreements (NDAs), 5, 149–151, 152, 155–156 Norway, 12 NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board), 132, 167 NUMMI plant, 76, 81 Nürburgring, 203 NuvoMedia, 23 O Occupy Wall Street, 80–81 Ohno, Taiichi, 57 OnStar, 194 Opel, 36 Opel Speedster, 36 OpenAI, 217 operating profits and losses, 89 P Packet Design, 23 Page, Larry, 44 Paine, Chris, 13, 64, 71, 73–74 Panasonic, 77 Pandora, 41 PayPal, 16, 28 Peak Oil, 11 Pinnacle Research, 25 platforms, 135–136 Porsche, 24, 26, 39, 203–204 Porsche 911, 39 power electronics module (PEM), 49 Powertrain Technology, 58 Prenzler, Christian, 100 preproduction, 187–188 price increases, 71 Prius, 24 profitability, 81–82, 89 Project Better Place, 4–5, 11–12 public, going, 80–81 Q quality, 55, 59–60 Quality Control Systems, 131 R Ranger, 60 Reddit, 97, 99–100 reliability, 143 Renault Kwid, 207 Renault Zoe, 198 Reuters, 66 Revenge of the Electric Car (film), 64 Roadster as Elise conversion, 37–39 launch of, 14–15, 29, 42, 47–51, 59–61 new model of, 211–215 profitability of, 71–72, 81 securing investments for, 44, 45 and Tesla startup, 2–3 robotaxis, 166–167 Rogan, Joe, 219 Rosen, Harold, 26 Rosen Motors, 26 S Saleen, 99–100 San Carlos, California, 28 San Francisco, California, 59 San Jose, California, 75–76 Santa Monica, California, 45 Saudi Arabia, 218–219 Schwarzenegger, Arnold, 45 Scion xB, 27 Seagate, 23 “The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan” (blog post), 21 Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), 67, 160, 219–220, 224, 234 Seeking Alpha, 103, 105–107 self-driving cars, 120–133 Semi, 211–215 Senate Finance Committee, 67 Series A funding, 29 Series C funding, 40, 44–45 Series D funding, 46, 47 Series E funding, 50 S 40 model, 84 Shashua, Amnon, 167–170 Silicon Valley, 4, 14, 15, 17, 45, 53, 54, 58 Siry, Darryl, 65, 73 60 Minutes, 66 S 60 model, 84 “skateboard” chassis, 134, 202 Skype, 41 Smart (Tesla car), 68 software startups, 54–55 SolarCity, 110–111, 164 solar power, 109–114 Sorbonne University, 66 South Africa, 25 SpaceX, 15, 16, 25, 28, 39, 66, 78, 100 Spiegel, Mark, 102–103 Stanford University, 4, 26, 27, 28, 121 startups, 41–43, 59, 62, 76 “stealth recalls,” 160–161 stock price, 89, 90, 93, 97, 100, 102–103 StockTwits, 98 Straubel, JB, 26, 28, 48 SunCube, 146–147 Superchargers, 109–119 SYNC, 194 T TACC (Traffic Aware Cruise Control), 125 Tama, 197 Tarpenning, Marc, 21–24, 27, 31, 37, 43, 113 Tea Party movement, 80–81 “Tesla Death Watch” (blog posts), 3 Tesla Energy Group, 68 Tesla Founders Blog, 50 Tesla Motors. see also specific headings and barriers to entry, 35, 56 branding of, 16–17, 18, 59–63, 225–234 and collisions, 127–133 concept of, 34–36 continuous improvement at, 58 culture of, 51–52, 60 detractors of, 102–108 as disruptive innovator, 195–197 EBITDA of, 215 and environmental issues, 112–113, 119 “factory-less” model of, 35–36 innovation by, 201–210 internal conflict at, 29–32 legacy of, 19 Model 3 introduced by, 8–10 personal approach to public relations, xii raising capital for, 44, 69–71, 85 “shaky ground” of, 4, 5 as startup, 2–3 stock price of, 89, 90, 93, 97, 100, 102–103 strategy of, 22 and Supercharger network, 109–119 and whistleblowers, xii Tesla Motors Club (TMC), 95–97 Teslarati, 100 “Tesla stare,” 60 “Tesla Suspension Breakage: It’s Not the Crime, It’s the Coverup” (blog post), 151 Thailand, 48, 218 Think Global, 11, 67 Thrun, Sebastian, 121 TMC (Tesla Motors Club), 95–97 Too Big to Fail, 91 Toyoda, Akio, 76 Toyoda, Sakichi, 57 Toyota, 184, 201. see also specific models auto sales, 11 contract with, 81, 83 electric vehicles of, 159–160 and 2008 financial crisis, 76–77 pragmatism of, 209 safety scandal, 149–151 Toyota Previa, 214 Toyota Production System (TPS), 56–60, 76–77, 142, 183 Toyota Way, 58, 77 TPS. see Toyota Production System Traction Avant, 193–194 trading volume, 89 Traffic Aware Cruise Control (TACC), 125 The Truth About Cars (TTAC) (blog), 1–3 Tse, Bernard, 67 turnarounds, financial, 83–87 Twitter, 41, 98, 104–108, 113, 152, 156, 217–220, 224, 236 tzero, 23–24, 26, 27, 31, 37 V Valor Equity Partners, 47 Vance, Ashlee, 38, 47, 66, 73, 84, 120–121, 137, 227–228 VantagePoint Capital Partners, 66 variable costs, 54 V8 engine, 62 Volkswagen, 11, 171, 203–205 W Wall Street Journal, 2, 18, 100, 129, 132, 168, 187 Waymo, 173–174 Web 2.0, 41 Weintraub, Seth, 97–98, 101 Wharton School of Business, 25 whistleblowers, xii Whitestar, 46–48, 51, 65, 67, 68, 73 Who Killed the Electric Car?

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Even after the Model T had become hopelessly outdated and rival companies started eating into its once-dominant market share, Ford’s formula of standardized parts, vertical integration, and economies of scale continued to define the car business for nearly a half century. Eventually, this too was surpassed by the Toyota Production System, or TPS. TPS grew out of the teachings of W. Edwards Deming and others and has now become the foundation on which every automaker’s culture is built. Starting with the concept of statistical process control, Deming developed a scientific approach to management that conceptualized companies as machinelike systems that could be optimized for ever-greater quality and efficiency.

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This unmatched growth was not the product of superior styling or performance, but the consistent reliability and quality of its cars. This modern miracle proved conclusively that most car buyers value reliable utility above sexy looks or exciting performance, and that culture rather than technological innovation was the key to this consistent quality. Today, every major automaker has embraced the fundamentals of the Toyota Production System—and so have businesses in every kind of manufacturing and beyond. Part of this success stems from the fact that TPS is values based rather than prescriptive, making it easily adaptable to almost any business undertaking. But it remains most effective—indeed, necessary—in the massive and complex business of making cars, where every step in global supply chains is an opportunity for defects and inefficiencies to work into the system.

The Butterfly Defect: How Globalization Creates Systemic Risks, and What to Do About It
by Ian Goldin and Mike Mariathasan
Published 15 Mar 2014

“Lean Management” and “Just-in-Time” Production Although one best practice is the outsourcing of production, another crucial operation is that of lean management. We saw that the Toyota production system aimed at reducing muri (overburden), mura (inconsistency), and muda (waste). According to Toyota engineer and visionary Taiichi Ohno, muda can be broken down into six subcategories: 1. Waste of time on hand (waiting) 2. Waste of transportation 3. Waste of processing itself 4. Waste of stock at hand 5. Waste of movement 6. Waste of making defective products29 An investigation of these apparent wastages, however, shows that management just might be too lean. What the Toyota production system labels “waste of stock at hand” might also be thought of as buffer stock.

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It more than doubled its production, from just over 4 million cars in 1990 to nearly 10 million in 2009, eventually overtaking General Motors as the world’s largest car manufacturer. Toyota’s profits grew accordingly, from around US$1 billion in 1990 to over US$17 billion in 2008.18 The ideas that enabled this growth were famously embodied in the Toyota production system, whose main objectives were to eliminate three unwanted inefficiencies: muri (overburden), mura (inconsistency), and muda (waste).19 The system became known as “lean management” as an excoriation of these three Ms stripped down supply chains ever further. Toyota relied on efficient transportation platforms and data exchange networks to deliver parts when they were needed but not before.

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On the industry level, however, such behavior reduces resilience and generates systemic instabilities in the same way that it drove the financial system into a state of homogeneity (with banks trading in similar assets using similar business models and making the same underlying assumptions) and complexity (with markets becoming increasingly opaque due to the high volume of complex securities traded). To see one manifestation of the risk ensuing from best practices, consider the case of a car manufacturer that profitably outsources the production of one of its key components, for instance, the steering system. We saw earlier how this practice formed a key part of the revolutionary Toyota production system. If only the industry leader delegates its production, there does not seem to be a sizable systemic risk. A failure at the production plant will affect the supply chain of the outsourcer but will leave the chains of its competitors intact. The industries dependent on the manufacturer (for example, logistics firms), as well as consumers, will have the opportunity to substitute the missing goods for competing products, leaving the market largely unaffected.

Kanban in Action
by Marcus Hammarberg and Joakim Sunden
Published 17 Mar 2014

He often lets a person talk for quite a while before he makes up his mind what to say, and then he responds with something profound meant to make them think. This annoys some people, because they usually just want to know what “to do.” He has solid theoretical knowledge in all things Lean, agile, and about the Toyota Production System. And he has a lot of practical experience to go along with it, too. In his spare time, Joakim is a foodie and a movie buff, and quotes from obscure Danish dogma movies sneak into his conversations from time to time (much to the confusion of those around him). Joakim has four kids (ages zero to nine) and a wife (Anna) and still manages to be engaged in the progress of the company he works for (Spotify) and the Lean and agile communities in Sweden and around the world.

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The Japanese connection You should probably know something about the word kanban itself, if for no other reason than so that you can impress your friends with your knowledge of Japanese. Kanban is two Japanese words put together: kan, meaning visual, and ban, meaning card. Put together, it becomes something like “visual card” or “signaling card.” Kanban as a concept comes from Toyota, where it was invented as a scheduling system for just-in-time manufacturing in the Toyota Production System (TPS). When researchers in the West studied TPS, they called it Lean Production System, later Lean Manufacturing and Lean Thinking.[a] Kanban has its origins in the principles of TPS and Lean, which is why you’ll find a lot of references to these concepts throughout this book and in most other texts about kanban for software development.

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A one-piece continuous flow is a system in which each part of work that creates value for the customer moves from one value-adding step in the process directly to the next, and so on until it reaches the customer, without any waiting time or batching between those steps. Instead of building up inventories just in case, things are produced only when needed, just in time—at the right place and in the right quantity: no more, no less. 1 Toyota is the company that pioneered the Toyota Production System (TPS), which Lean is based on. This continuous flow turns every process into a tightly linked chain in which everything is connected. There is nowhere for a problem to hide, no inventory of other work or products to work on if something stops or breaks; so when things break, you immediately know what’s happened, and you’re forced to solve the problem together.

Unleashed
by Anne Morriss and Frances Frei
Published 1 Jun 2020

Toyota broke from the auto industry’s norm of brutalizing OEM suppliers and committed to making them better off instead.22 The calculation was simple, clear-eyed, industrial math: more efficient suppliers would mean lower costs for Toyota. And so Toyota gave its suppliers access to the wisdom of its famed Toyota Production System (TPS). Suppliers got to learn from TPS how to lower their own operating costs, while Toyota got a progressively lower price on parts. This extraordinary learning partnership gave suppliers the chance to expand their surplus not only with Toyota, but also with every other client they served.

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Casey Newton, “TaskRabbit Is Blowing Up Its Business Model and Becoming the Uber for Everything,” The Verge, June 17, 2014, https://www.theverge.com/2014/6/17/5816254/taskrabbit-blows-up-its-auction-house-to-offer-services-on-demand. 20. Lee, “On the Record: TaskRabbit’s Stacy Brown-Philpot.” 21. James K. Willcox, “Cable TV Fees Continue to Climb,” Consumer Reports, October 15, 2019, https://www.consumerreports.org/tv-service/cable-tv-fees/. 22. Steven J. Spear and H. Kent Bowen, “Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System,” Harvard Business Review, September 1, 1999. 23. Shawn Achor et al., “9 Out of 10 People Are Willing to Earn Less Money to Do More-Meaningful Work,” Harvard Business Review, November 6, 2018. 24. Brittain Ladd, “Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Believes This Is the Best Way to Run Meetings,” Observer, June 10, 2019, https://observer.com/2019/06/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-meetings-success-strategy/. 25.

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“we,” 84 Laurent, Nicolo, 124 leaders “A,” 132 absence of, 131–132 cultural, 185, 190–192 expectations of, 62, 77–81 integrity of, 60–61 signs of self-distracted, 6–8 unapologetic, 24–25 underrepresented, 18–19 visibility of queer, 113 leadership See also empowerment leadership justice and, 60–61 new definition of, 4–5, 8–9 outward orientation of, 2, 4–5, 8–12 performance curve, 10, 133 standards-devotion matrix of, 62–67, 70–87 traditional models of, 1–2 trust as foundation of, 33–34 Leadership Agency, 98 leadership profile, 64–65 LGBT+ people, creating inclusive spaces for, 110–112 LinkedIn, 9 little red book, 159–160 logic, 34–37, 41, 45–46, 51, 57 love, 12, 13, 57, 59–87 devotion and, 72–73 from expectations to, 77–81 from neglect to, 81, 84 tough, 62, 86–87 loyalty, 60, 67, 77 Marcario, Rose, 42–43 Mariscal, Marguerite Zabar, 160 Maximus, Valerius (ValMax), 59–62, 71, 72 McCord, Patty, 168–169, 172 McMillon, Doug, 2 meetings, 40–41, 55 inclusive, 108–109, 112–114 Memorable Deeds and Sayings (Maximus), 59–61 mentoring, 78–79, 109 meritocracy, 68, 109, 178 #MeToo, 24 Microsoft, 116, 191–192 Mikitani, Hiroshi, 161 Miller, Jo, 102–103 mindfulness, 52 Mission Command, 16–18 Moltke, Helmuth von, 17 Moments of Truth (Carlzon), 159–160 Momofuku, 160 Morgan, Jen, 2 Nadella, Satya, 116, 191–192 Neeleman, David, 167 Neeley, Tsedal, 161 neglect, 63, 65, 66, 67, 81, 84 Netflix, 168–169, 172 network effects, 153 NFL, 103–104 Nohria, Nitin, 122–123 O’Brien, Deirdre, 113 OKR (objectives and key results) system, 79 One-Strike-and-You’re-Out You, 64 O’Reilly, Tim, 143, 144 organizational change, 90–91 See also change resistance to, 92–94 other people’s awesomeness (OPA), 23, 74 others abilities of, 7 believing in, 22 curiosity about, 6, 82 empowerment of, 4–5, 54, 71 helping, 82–83 importance of, 2, 4 learning from, 45 orientation toward, 15 performance of, 9–12 seeing potential of, 14–15, 22, 23 outside lives, 83–84, 100–101 Patagonia, 42–43 Pawsitive Dog, 75–76 pay gap, 121–122 PayPal, 9 performance reviews, 80, 116, 117–119 PFLAG, 112 positive reinforcement, 22–23, 73–76, 78 praise, 73–74, 78 presence, 29–30, 40–41, 131 pricing decisions, 141–143, 144 primate brain, 52 private bathrooms, 111 profitability, 142, 143 promotions process, 114–115, 116, 119, 121 pronouns, 111 Prophet, Tony, 107, 122 psychological safety, 47, 107 public bathrooms, 111 Queer Eye, 15, 18 queer identities, 110–112 queer people, creating inclusive spaces for, 110–112 QuikTrip, 147–148 quotas, 104 radical accountability, 175 See also radical responsibility radical responsibility, 10, 40, 123 See also radical accountability Rakuten, 161 Rapinoe, Megan, 121–122 reconciliation, 122–123 recruitment process, 95–104 redemption, 123 representation tax, 120–121 retainment, 120–122 Revere, Paul, 24 Riot Games, 124–126, 168, 179–182 Rodriguez-Pastor, Carlos (CRP), 67–70 Roizen, Heidi, 117–118 Romney, Mitt, 99 Rooney, Dan, 103 Rooney rule, 103–104 root cause analysis, 115 Roseboro, Angela, 125 safety, 105, 106, 107 Safe Zone Project, 112 Saint John, Bozoma, 2, 121 Salesforce, 107 Sandberg, Sheryl, 5, 126, 169 SAP, 2 Sasser, Earl, 94 Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), 159–160 Schein, Edgar H., 167, 168, 177 Scooby Snacks, 78 Scrub Daddy, 157 self-distraction, 6–8, 18–19 self-improvement, 20–21 self-trust, 56–57 severity, 61, 63, 64–65, 66, 67, 77 sexual harassment, 106 Shark Tank, 156–157 “sink or swim” approach, 109, 112 SMART goals, 79 Smith, Fred, 166 social media, 52 Southwest Airlines, 136–138, 161 standards-devotion matrix, 62–67, 70–87 standard setting, 78–80 Starbucks, 168 Stonewall, 110 strategic confusion, 135 strategic value stick, 145, 150, 151, 155 strategic wedge, 152–153, 154–156, 191 strategy, 12–14, 132, 135–163 changing, 162 communication of, 156–161 defined, 136–138 growth, 152–154 planning, 154–156 strategic trade-offs, 136–141 suppliers and, 144–148 value-based, 135–136 value creation and, 141–144 writing about, 158 Stripe, 14 Su, Lisa, 62 Sulla, 72, 73 Super Pumped (Isaac), 172–173 Super You, 139 suppliers, 144–148, 153–154 talent attracting diverse, 95–104 retaining, 120–122 task forces, 92 TaskRabbit, 5, 148–152, 161 Tatum, Lisa Skeete, 14 teams building, 54 diverse, 48–49 leadership of, 13 terminations, 84, 85–86 360-degree reviews, 117–119 “toe-stepping,” 178–179 Ton, Zeynep, 147–148 tough love, 62, 86–87 toxic employees, 123 Toyota, 153–154 Toyota Production System (TPS), 153–154 trade-offs, 136–141 Trader Joe’s, 44 trust, 12, 13, 31–58 attributes of, 34, 36 authenticity and, 34–37, 47–54, 57 diagnosing your own level of, 35–39 empathy and, 34–41, 51, 57 as foundation of leadership, 33–34 logic and, 41, 45–46, 51, 57 rebuilding, 1, 55–56 in yourself, 56–57 trust anchor, 35, 37 trust drivers, 34, 35 trust triangle, 34, 36–37 trust wobble, 35–39, 42–44 Twitter, 102 Uber, 31–32, 51, 54–56, 114, 172–174, 178–179 United States Army, 16–18 USAID, 43 US Soccer Federation (USSF), 121–122 ValMax.

Winning Now, Winning Later
by David M. Cote
Published 17 Apr 2020

“From Bitter to Sweet.” 3.Shawn Tully, “How Dave Cote Got Honeywell’s Groove Back,” Fortune, May 14, 2012, http://fortune.com/2012/05/14/how-dave-cote-got-honeywells-groove-back/. 4.Joe DeSarla (manufacturing head of Honeywell’s Automation and Control Solutions business unit), interview with author, November 5, 2018. 5.“Toyota Production System,” Toyota, accessed October 8, 2019, https://www.toyota-global.com/company/vision_philosophy/toyota_production_system/origin_of_the_toyota_production_system.html. 6.Joe DeSarla, interview with the author, November 5, 2018. 7.“Honeywell Performance,” Annual Report (2006): 10. 8.Joe DeSarla, interview with the author, November 5, 2018. 9.“Honeywell Performance,” 17.

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“We’d never make progress because we just kept churning,” DeSarla said.4 If we could implement a uniform system for continuously improving operations in all of our plants, and if we could design that system to engage the brainpower of thousands of people in process change rather than relying on the weekend reading habits of individual managers, we could make sustained progress and over a period of years shift the entire company’s fortunes. But how, I asked myself, should we go about devising such a system? I thought immediately of the Toyota Production System (TPS), the automaker’s legendary system for improving processes at its plants to reduce waste and improve efficiency and effectiveness.5 I’d been reading about it for years, and from what I knew, this system wasn’t just about running plants better; rather, it was a way of structuring the workdays of managers and employees so that they would interact regularly.

Lessons from the Titans: What Companies in the New Economy Can Learn from the Great Industrial Giants to Drive Sustainable Success
by Scott Davis , Carter Copeland and Rob Wertheimer
Published 13 Jul 2020

As the Jake Brake grew in popularity, Koenigsaecker rose to head the Bloomfield facility. He became frustrated with its low productivity, subpar product quality, and delays in getting product to customers. He believed the company needed a desperate change or it would fail. In 1988, as he struggled to control Jacobs’s spiraling problems, he learned that two architects of the Toyota Production System were in nearby Hartford for a guest lecture. Their names were Yoshiki Iwata and Chihiro Nakao, two of the most well-regarded factory experts in Japan. Koenigsaecker attended their lecture and convinced them to meet for dinner. He desperately sought their advice, and as the wine poured, the men became curious about this mess of a factory they were hearing about.

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If the company delivered on its financial goals, business unit presidents, corporate executives, and numerous other senior managers stood to make a lot of money. GOING LEAN Beyond talent, David also saw the need to make bigger moves with regard to manufacturing. During his time at Otis, David came to appreciate the power of Lean manufacturing and the Toyota Production System (TPS) after Otis had a falling out with its Japanese joint venture partner, Matsushita. Matsushita uncovered flaws in Otis’s quality control systems that were leading to frequent breakdowns of Otis elevators installed at Matsushita’s headquarters. The Japanese were appalled. Otis was an elevator company without working elevators.

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These companies are almost always far along the Lean manufacturing journey, and they benchmark internally and externally to best-in-class organizations. The best of the best go beyond the factory floor. They apply systematic tools to all their functions, including R&D, sales, purchasing, distribution, and back office. Danaher, for example, customized the Toyota Production System and created (or borrowed) more than a dozen tools to focus its employees. Each function has its own toolkit and is empowered to lever that toolkit to its fullest. Increasingly, we see these best-in-class organizations also utilize metrics around employee engagement and turnover. They focus as much on filtering out bad managers as they do on elevating good ones.

The Decline and Fall of IBM: End of an American Icon?
by Robert X. Cringely
Published 1 Jun 2014

I suggested at the time that if you worked at IBM Global Services, you should have asked your boss outright if you were on the list to be fired. It would have put the boss in a bind, sure, but might have led to a sort of Alice's Restaurant effect in which hypocrisy was confronted and exposed. The Toyota Production System—more magical thinking: IBM’s LEAN was supposed to have been based on another program called Lean (not LEAN) that characterized the Toyota Production System (TPS)—Toyota Motors’ answer to Henry Ford’s method of mass production. Academics from MIT had studied how Toyota became such a successful car company and discovered TPS, which they relabeled Lean Manufacturing, and described to the world.

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We create new opportunities by letting "extra" people work on continued lean efforts in other departments or we grow the business to create more work. As Jim Womack says, "Lean is about doing more with less, not doing less with lots less (people)." It's very sad for the IBM employees. I'm sorry you have lousy management. Don't blame this on real Lean, the Toyota Production System. Mark Graban | May 04, 2007 | 5:35PM IBM’s Lean a ‘perversion’ Lean works. Period. What IBM is doing is not lean. It is a perversion given an honorable name to make it appear more honorable. Lean is about removing waste--whether that's scrap, unnecessary motion, or wholly ineffective management.

The Startup Way: Making Entrepreneurship a Fundamental Discipline of Every Enterprise
by Eric Ries
Published 15 Mar 2017

Certainly my lack of a manufacturing background or formal training in “the Toyota way” might have given them pause. But in the open culture at Toyota, these issues never came up. As we worked together, several early adopters within the company revealed why they thought Lean Startup could be beneficial when added to Toyota Production System (TPS). Toyota has become world-leading in its ability to mass-produce high-quality products on time, on budget, and with industry-leading cost. The company has had some very successful innovations, like the Prius hybrid drive technology, but at the time of my meeting, they had not had the same level of success incorporating digital platform–style innovations into their products.

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Clearly, somebody in the entourage had read it—it had just been translated into Japanese. But Tomoyama-san himself did not speak at first; I couldn’t read his body language to tell what he thought. When he finally broke his silence, he said something I will never forget: “This is the missing half of the Toyota Production System. We have a system that is outstanding at producing what we specify, with high quality, but we don’t have a corresponding system for discovering what to produce in the first place.” He explained that Toyota had become so advanced in its ability to efficiently produce existing products that it had lost something of its early innovative spirit.

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We added other tools, like a more disciplined growth-board process inspired by venture capital funding and cultural sayings. I think if you judge a culture by their communication, by the words they use, that’s how you know you’ve had a change.” Remember, it’s not even called “lean manufacturing” at Toyota—it’s the Toyota Production System. Learning to work in this new way is not about the rigid adoption of a series of practices; it’s about finding the ways the tools can be adapted and applied to each specific company. When people go to Intuit looking for a model of how to bring innovation into their companies—the company’s Design for Delight innovation process has been hugely successful—Bennett Blank, innovation leader at Intuit, explains, “They say ‘What can we replicate?’ 

Do Improvise: Less push. More pause. Better results. A new approach to work (and life) (Do Books)
by Poynton, Robert
Published 14 May 2013

Not only does everyone have an opportunity to lead, but if the group is to fulfil its potential everyone has the obligation to lead, when required. This isn’t unique to the stage. I once had a former soldier in a workshop. He observed, wryly, that in combat ‘the person leading is the person who can see best’. The same idea is in play in the famous Toyota Production System where any worker can stop the line. Every individual, at whatever level, is given the chance to lead and the power to exercise it. The person who sees best, leads. If this is an advantage in manufacturing, in a knowledge business it is vital. There is more information than anyone can absorb, so you need to be able to take advantage of many points of view.

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48–9 your own baggage (shadow story) and 42 complexity theory 118 ‘connective tissue’ 99 control: changing attitudes towards 116–17 companies which give employees 121–3 exerting influence without 31 imposing in areas where it isn’t appropriate 9, 11 as neither sensible or desirable 30 new ideas and 79§ paying attention to what you can 12, 52, 113–14 creativity 65–88 all creativity is co-creativity 85–6 and solving future world problems 66 creative doing, not creative thinking 72–6 creative process 67 ‘creativity is the new literacy’ 85 embracing constraint and 80–6 Game: Object Taps 87–8 importance of 66, 85–6 importance of play 69–72 ‘last letter, first letter’ 80, 81 popular image of 66–8 putting flow first 77–80 sets humans apart 85 Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly 66 ‘Dance Your Ph.D’ (TED talk) 76 discomfort, accepting 10, 94, 96 eatbigfish 20, 138 Edison, Thomas 102 education 30, 114 either/or, seeing things as 114 Everything’s An Offer (EAO) 17, 18 ‘Facebook effect, the’ 23 ‘fit and well’ 35, 102 Fleming, Alexander 70 flexibility 90–1, 107, 121 future-proof 30, 101 games, killer 12–13, 27–8, 32, 33–8, 59–64, 78, 79, 81–2, 87–8, 99, 108–11, 112, 117, 118, 120, 125–37, 138 see also under individual game name General Motors 103 Gore Associates 121 Heifetz, Professor Ronald 107 Hirsch, Gary 27, 38, 45–6, 49, 61, 71, 88, 111, 118 Hollywood 67, 89, 93–4 Honda 122–3 ideas, generating new 10, 12, 70, 87, 88, 113 acting first 72–6 constraint and 80–6 creating a flow of 31 finding in areas your competitors don’t notice 20, 21, 22–5 flow and 77–80 games and see games in spite of how things are organised, not because of them 116 leaders and see leadership new ideas as combinations of old ones, re-expressed 14 play and 69–72 practice and 94, 95, 96 re-designing organisations and 121 using other people’s 98–100 IDEO 75 IKEA 28, 102–3, 111 image bank 85 improv in action 112–24 analysis, nature of 113–15 building into the design of an organization 119–23 education and 114 either/or ‘yes, and...’ 114 enthusiasm for taking things to pieces and 115–16 journeys and 115 order without control 113, 116–17 planning and 114–15 improv theatre 31, 112, 119 improvisation, nature of 8–13 incorporations (game) 135–7 intuition/hunch 30, 100, 101, 115, 123 journeys, improv and 115 Kamprad, Ingvar 28, 102–3 Keating, David 42–3 Kelleher, Herb 85 knee-jerk conclusions/reaction, resisting 18, 23–4 Kranz, Gene 100 leadership 89–111 accepting discomfort and 94, 95 distributed 91–2 ‘fit and well’ 102 flexibility and 107 fluid approach to 90–1 focus on your own experience 93 Game: Swedish Story 108–11 intuition/hunch and 100, 101, 123 level of trust in 99 looking for offers 101–3 mistakes and 93–4, 95, 102–3 new ideas and 98–9 no single leader 89–92 paying attention to others and 97–8, 99–100 practice and 93, 94–6 presence and 96–7 status and 104–6 value ‘connective tissue’ 99 Let Go 15, 16, 17, 18, 22–5, 29, 34–5, 55, 56, 70, 84, 91, 96, 101, 117, 119, 122, 125, 127, 129 listening 20, 21, 29, 41, 42, 44, 45, 47, 48, 49, 55–6, 60, 62, 81, 96–8, 107 Mandela, Nelson 97 Michelangelo 79 mistakes 26, 27, 54, 93–4, 95, 101, 102–3, 105, 113, 114–15, 123, 127 Morgan, Adam 20, 42, 51 Morning Star 121–2 Nike 48 ‘no’, saying 28, 42, 51, 54 Notice More 15, 16, 17, 18–22, 35, 81, 96–7, 119 Object Taps (game) 87–8 offer/offers: blocking 37, 40–2, 54, 56–7, 58, 59, 61, 62, 63, 64, 76, 78–80, 103, 120 errors and mistakes as 26–8, 103 Everything’s An Offer (EAO) 16, 17, 18, 26, 102–3 failure and breakdowns as 28–9 seeing objections as 56–7, 101–3 On Your Feet 38, 49, 71, 82, 84, 119, 122 One to Twenty (game) 125, 131–4 Pascale, Richard 122–3 paying attention 19, 22, 24, 96–8, 99–100 Pert, Candace 22 planning 9, 51–2, 62, 63, 81, 113, 114–15 practice, improvisational 12, 13, 14–31 Let Go 15, 16, 17, 18, 22–5, 29, 34–5, 55, 56, 70, 84, 91, 96, 101, 117, 119, 122, 125, 127, 129 Notice More 15, 16, 17, 18–22, 35, 81, 96–7, 119 Presents (game) 33–8, 62, 63, 111, 129 Use Everything 15–16, 17, 18, 26–9, 96, 119 presentations 39, 44–58 Presents (game) 33–8, 62, 63, 111, 129 Robinson, Sir Ken 85, 86 Rodriguez, Robert 28 Roshi, Suzuki 27 Rosling, Hans 53 SCRUM 119 Semco 121 senses 18–21, 76, 96 shadow story 24–5, 42, 56 Sloan, Alfred 103 software engineers 119–20 Southwest Airlines 85 status 49, 104–6, 107 storyteller improv games 27–8, 99, 108–11 Swedish Story (game) 108–11 taking things to pieces, enthusiasm for 8, 18, 29, 30, 113, 115–16 TED talks 53, 76 3M 121 Toyota Production System 91 Twain, Mark 54 Use Everything 15–16, 17, 18, 26–9, 35, 96, 119 Wake Wood (film) 42–3 weak signals 99–100 ‘whites of the eyes’ 46 ‘Yes, and’ (game) 59–64, 78 ‘yes, and...’, seeing things as 11, 42, 98, 114, 120 Published by The Do Book Company 2013 Works in Progress Publishing Ltd www.thedobook.co Text copyright © Robert Poynton 2013 Illustrations copyright © Andy Smith 2012 The right of Robert Poynton to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced to a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Black Box Thinking: Why Most People Never Learn From Their Mistakes--But Some Do
by Matthew Syed
Published 3 Nov 2015

If anybody on the production line is having a problem or observes an error, that person pulls a cord that halts production across the plant. Senior executives rush over to see what has gone wrong and, if an employee is having difficulty performing her job, she is helped as needed by executives. The error is then assessed, lessons learned, and the system adapted. It is called the Toyota Production System, or TPS, and is one of the most successful techniques in industrial history. “The system was about cars, which are very different from people,” Kaplan says when we meet for an interview. “But the underlying principle is transferable. If a culture is open and honest about mistakes, the entire system can learn from them.

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Cutting-edge organizations are always seeking to close this gap, but in order to do so they have to have a system geared up to take advantage of these learning opportunities. This system may itself change over time: most experts are already trialing methods that they hope will surpass the Toyota Production System. But each system has a basic structure at its heart: mechanisms that guide learning and self-correction. Yet an enlightened system on its own is sometimes not enough. Even the most beautifully constructed system will not work if professionals do not share the information that enables it to flourish.

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They don’t just want players to improve, but to do so as fast and as profoundly as possible. In a similar way, in health care, there are debates about whether the Virginia Mason System creates the most effective method of reducing medical errors, just as there are discussions about whether the Toyota Production System is the best way of improving efficiency on a production line. But both models will eventually be superseded. We will learn to create more effective evolutionary systems, not just in health care and manufacturing, but in aviation, too.* How, then, to select between competing evolutionary systems?

Lab Rats: How Silicon Valley Made Work Miserable for the Rest of Us
by Dan Lyons
Published 22 Oct 2018

Department of War created a methodology called Training Within Industry to help overburdened defense contractors. Just like Taylor with his pig iron lifters, the idea of Training Within Industry was to get factory workers to crank out more stuff in less time. After the war, Japanese companies refined Training Within Industry into what came to be known as the Toyota Production System, which then evolved into Lean Manufacturing and just-in-time manufacturing. In the 1980s, two engineers at Motorola, the American consumer electronics giant, dreamed up a manufacturing system called Six Sigma, which big companies around the world spent the next two decades adopting. And so it goes.

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For the past hundred years, since the days of Frederick Taylor, companies have been latching on to new management fads, and each new fad runs its course, and then everyone leaps onto the next one, believing—like Charlie Brown running for the football in Lucy’s hands—that this time things will be different. Management Science Meets the Information Age Twentieth-century Taylorite methodologies like Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, and the Toyota Production System were developed for manufacturing physical things—cars, airplanes, lawn furniture, whatever. But now we’re in the Information Age, and most of us work with our brains, not our hands. Of course, with the rise of the Internet, clever management consultants started wondering if you could create a system that would optimize the productivity of knowledge workers and impose rigor and discipline on tasks like writing software code.

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In 2004, he and four others split off and built a new virtual world, a place where people create avatars to socialize and play games. They called the company IMVU. Ries was the chief technology officer. Ries stayed at IMVU for four years, and during his time there he became fascinated with the Toyota Production System and Lean Manufacturing. He theorized that you could take the principles that Toyota uses to assemble a Corolla and apply them to developing new software products, or even to the process of building a company. IMVU, his start-up, provided a real-life laboratory for testing his theories. In 2008, after leaving IMVU, Ries started writing a blog and giving speeches, laying out his theories.

Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
by Nir Eyal
Published 26 Dec 2013

In addition to Dorsey’s user narratives, tools like customer development,11 usability studies, and empathy maps12 are examples of methods for learning about potential users. One method is to try asking the question “Why?” as many times as it takes to get to an emotion. Usually, this will happen by the fifth why. This is a technique adapted from the Toyota Production System, described by Taiichi Ohno as the “5 Whys Method.” Ohno wrote that it was “the basis of Toyota’s scientific approach . . . by repeating ‘why?’ five times, the nature of the problem as well as its solution becomes clear.”13 When it comes to figuring out why people use habit-forming products, internal triggers are the root cause, and “Why?”

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,” Startup Lessons Learned (accessed Nov. 12, 2013), http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/11/what-is-customer-development.html. 12. Rich Crandall, “Empathy Map,” the K12 Lab Wiki (accessed Nov. 12, 2013), https://dschool.stanford.edu/groups/k12/wiki/3d994/Empathy_Map.html. 13. Taiichi Ohno, Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-scale Production (Portland, OR: Productivity Press, 1988). 14. For more on the need for social belonging, see: Susan T. Fiske, Social Beings: A Core Motives Approach to Social Psychology (Hoboken: Wiley, 2010). Chapter 3: Action 1. “What Causes Behavior Change?,” B.

The Personal MBA: A World-Class Business Education in a Single Volume
by Josh Kaufman
Published 2 Feb 2011

—BRUCE BARTON, ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE BEST KNOWN FOR CREATING THE BETTY CROCKER BRAND At this very moment, a Toyota engineer somewhere in the world is making a very small change to the Toyota Production System, one of the most efficient manufacturing Systems in the world. Alone, the change may not look like much—a small tweak, a slight restructure, a bit of material or effort saved. Taken together, however, the effects are huge—Toyota employees implement over 1 million improvements to the Toyota Production System every year. It’s little wonder that Toyota is now the world’s largest and most valuable automotive manufacturer.4 Small helpful or harmful behaviors and inputs tend to Accumulate over time, producing huge results.

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You can think of the Value Stream as a combination of your Value Creation and Value Delivery processes. Very often, your offer moves directly from the first into the second. Even though the purposes of these core processes are very different, treating them as one big process can help you improve your ability to deliver the value you create. The Toyota Production System (TPS) was the first large-scale manufacturing operation to systematically examine its entire Value Stream on a regular basis. Analyzing the production system in great detail paved the way for an ongoing series of small, incremental improvements: Toyota engineers make over 1 million improvements to the TPS each year.

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See Systems improvement recommended reading second-order effects selection test slack stock uncertainty Systems analysis analytical honesty confidence interval context correlation and causation deconstruction garbage in, garbage out humanization key performance indicator mean, median, mode, midrange measurement norms proxy ratios recommended reading sampling segmentation Systems improvement automation cessation checklist critical few diminishing returns experimental mind-set fail-safe friction middle path optimization recommended reading refactoring resilience scenario planning standard operating procedure (SOP) stress testing Take the puppy home strategy Target monthly revenue (TMR) Taylor, Frederick W. Teamwork. See Working with others Tesco Testimonials Testing Tharp, Roland Third parties, as buffers Threat lockdown, mental Throughput Time, as universal currency Time value of money Tools, as force multipliers Toyota Production System (TPS) Trade-offs creating, example of incremental degradation as relative importance testing understanding, importance of between universal currencies in value creation Transactions, completing. See Sales Travel Web sites Trust background checks increasing, with damaging admission and sales transaction See also Reputation Tversky, Amos Ultradian rhythm Unbundling.

The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age
by Robert Wachter
Published 7 Apr 2015

In some hospitals, nurses now mix or collect their medications wearing vests that say “Don’t Interrupt Me,” or stand inside a “Do Not Interrupt” zone marked off with red tape. But there was probably something else—more subtle and more cultural—at play. Today, many healthcare organizations study the Toyota Production System, which is widely admired as a model for safe and defect-free manufacturing. One element of the TPS is known as “Stop the Line.” On Toyota’s busy assembly line, it is every frontline worker’s right—responsibility, really—to stop the line if he thinks something may be amiss. The assembly line worker does this by pulling a red rope that runs alongside the entire line.

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Coiera, “A Systematic Review of the Psychological Literature on Interruption and Its Patient Safety Implications,” Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 19:6–12 (2012); and J. Craig, F. Clanton, and M. Demeter, “Reducing Interruptions During Medication Administration: The White Vest Study,” Journal of Research in Nursing 19: 248–261 (2014). 161 One element of the TPS is known as “Stop the Line” See C. Furman and R. Caplan, “Applying the Toyota Production System: Using a Patient Safety Alert System to Reduce Error,” Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety 33:376–386 (2007). 162 In a seminal 1983 article, Lisanne Bainbridge L. Bainbridge, “Ironies of Automation,” Automatica 19:775–779 (1983). 162 In a famous 1995 case, the cruise ship Royal Majesty National Transportation Safety Board, Grounding of the Panamanian Passenger Ship Royal Majesty on Rose and Crown Shoal Near Nantucket, Massachusetts, June 10, 1995 (Washington DC: National Transportation Safety Board, 1997). 162 In a dramatic study illustrating the hazards K.

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See regional health information exchanges (RHIOs) Rock Health, 237–240 Röntgen, Wilhelm, 50 Rothman, David, 30 Royal Majesty, 162 satisficing, 161 Schiff, Gordon, 87–88 Schmidt, Eric, 185 Schumpeter, Joseph, 250–251 Schwab, Robert, 65–66 scribes, 75, 82 The Second Machine Age (Brynjolfsson and McAfee), 94, 244 Semmelweis, Ignaz, 23 Septra, 128, 136–137 See also Pablo Garcia medical error case Shenkin, Budd, 174 Shorter, Edward, 30 Shortliffe, Ted, 102 shovel ready, 14–15 Siegler, Eugenia, 39 simple transforms, 5, 113 Sinsky, Christine, 75, 78–79, 83–86, 87, 210 Sixth International Conference on AIDS, 195 Slack, Warner, 93, 276 Slack’s Law, 276 Smart Patients, 179–180, 196–200 Smarter than You Think (Thompson), 276 Smith, Mark, 108, 113, 122–123, 183–185, 188 SOAP note, 46 social media, 177–178 Stack, Steve, 73 stacking, 53 standardization, 41–42, 244 hospital standardization, 36 standards, 13 See also Meaningful Use Sterile Cockpit, 83 stethoscopes, 32, 33 Stoller, James, 77 Stop the Line, 161 Strangers at the Bedside (Rothman), 30 Sullenberger, Chesley “Sully”, 147, 270 supervised learning, 112 Swiss cheese model, 131–132 Sydenham, Thomas, 31 Szolovits, Peter, 100–101, 110, 112 Tecco, Halle, 238–239 teleradiology, 60–61 See also radiology televisits, 261 tethered personal health records, 185 See also PHRs third-party payers, and medical records, 37–39 Thompson, Clive, 276 Tillack, Allison, 55, 56–57, 58 Top 100 lists, 40 Toyota Production System, 161 trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. See Septra Tsoukas, Hari, 56 UCSF Medical Center Benioff Children’s Hospital, 127–130 computer systems, 132–134 Epic Systems, 224–225 MyChart portal, 133 universal patient identifiers, 190 upcoding of diagnoses, 81–83 See also kwashiorkor usability, 74, 214–215, 249 user-centered design, 269 lack of, 76–77 vendor lock, 217 vendors, and Meaningful Use, 212–213 Verghese, Abraham, 27–28, 45, 77, 93, 113, 273 Vioxx, 183 Wah, Robert, 17, 246 Walker, Jan, 175, 176 Warner, David, 174 Watson supercomputer, 94, 108–109 in healthcare, 103–104, 105–106, 118 on Jeopardy, 95, 102 therapies, 111–113 Weed, Larry, 45–46 Weiner, Michael, 105 WellPoint, 17 work flow, 243–244 See also productivity paradox x-rays, 32 See also radiology Zeiger, Roni, 76, 179–181, 186, 196, 199–200 About the Author Robert Wachter is professor and associate chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, where he directs the 60-physician Division of Hospital Medicine.

The Self-Made Billionaire Effect: How Extreme Producers Create Massive Value
by John Sviokla and Mitch Cohen
Published 30 Dec 2014

Most ideas will be small, but they can empower people to embrace changes that redirect the business and make people at all levels feel that their contributions mean something, a seemingly minute action that can embolden people to present even more radical ideas. Students of the “Lean” approach to change management will rightly see our encouragement for Lean-supported modes of thinking in these recommendations. Continuous improvement, one of the central tenets of the Toyota Production System from which Lean is derived, instills an organizational belief that processes and approaches can always get better, and that the people employed to do the work are in the best position to see opportunities in their zone of influence and act on them. In the realm of Empathetic Imagination, continuous improvement creates an environment in which small ideas have the potential to snowball into big ones, with the added benefit that it helps reveal the emergent Producers in your midst and gives them the opportunity to implement ideas.

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K., 48 Princess Cruises, 94, 95, 197 Princeton University, 198 Procter & Gamble (P&G), 46, 68, 170 producer-performer duality, 143–66 abundance of producers and, 158–61 cultivating producer-performer pairs and, 163–66 duality of greatness and, 145–48 finding matches and, 162–63 prevalence of producer-performer pairs and, 148–55 producer-performer equation and, 155–58 producers, 15–18, 19–20, 21–24, 37–38, 170–81 abundance of, 158–61 divergent thinking of, 31 habits of mind of, 24–27 nurturing of, 187–88 Puck, Wolfgang, 156 Punjab, India, 64 PwC, 10, 173, 175 Qwest Communications, 196 Red Bull, 4, 8, 12, 41–42, 106, 210 Redken, 124, 143, 168, 202 “Red Oceans,” 36 Related Companies, 107, 122, 126, 127, 213 Resnick, Lynda, 21, 152, 212 Resnick, Stewart, 21, 152, 212 Revolution, 68 risk, 20 risk equation, reversing of, 113–42 considering alternatives and, 125–27 evidence that billionaires are not big risk takers and, 119–22 learning to, 135–42 maintaining relative view after setback and, 122–25 never betting last penny and, 127–30 revisiting resilience and, 130–35 where the real risk lies and, 115–19 Roll International, 152 Roosevelt, Theodore, 113 Ross, Stephen, 1, 18, 26, 107, 122–24, 125–27, 139, 213 Rotork Marine, 100, 202 Royal Caribbean, 95 Royal College of Art, 202 Ruhl, Alexis Spanos, 128–29 Saint Louis University, 122 Salomon Brothers, 108, 119, 124, 198–99, 214 Sandberg, Sheryl, 153, 213 San Diego Chargers, 216 San Francisco, Calif., 101, 102 San Joaquin Valley, 72 Saverin, Eduardo, 219 Schering-Plough, 86, 203, 206 Schmidt, Eric, 158, 200, 213–14 Schultz, Howard, 37, 96–97, 214 Scotland, 114 Sea Truck, 100 Seattle Seahawks, 196 Secunda, Thomas, 108, 153, 214–15 Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), 105 self-made billionaires: defined, 3–4 tactics and habits of, 4–5 September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, 107 Sex Pistols, 199 Shenzhen, China, 204 Showtime, 33 Siemens, 210 Silicon Valley, 213 Simon, Frank, 215 Simon, Fred, 159 Simon, Herbert, 26, 159–61, 215 Simon, Melvin, 26, 159–61, 215 Simon Property Group, 159, 215 Sinatra, Frank, 218 Slim, Carlos, 36 Slovenia, 8 Slywotzky, Adrian, 56 Soros, George, 18 South Africa, 211 Southern Pacific Railroad, 196 SpaceX, 211 Spanos, Alexander, 26, 71–73, 76, 119, 120–21, 128–29, 148, 216 Spanos, Dean, 120, 148 Spanos, Michael, 148 Spanos children, 75, 120, 147–48 Spanx, 4, 31, 37, 47, 153, 162–63, 198 Stanford University, 199, 212 Staples Center, 196 Starbucks Coffee Company, 37, 96–97, 214 Steyer, Thomas, 25, 37, 101–5, 216 Stockton, Calif., 71, 72, 120, 216 Student, 100 Summers, Larry, 213 SunAmerica, 200 Sun Life Insurance, 200 Sun Life Stadium, 213 Sun Microsystems, 183, 214 Suzuki, 64, 210 Sviokla, John, 10 Swensen, David, 102, 103 Sydney Opera House, 140 Sze Man Bok, 45–46, 204 Taiwan, 204 talent, 14 reshifting balance of, 21–24 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 34 Target, 55 Taylor, Frederick Winslow, 77 Taylor, Glen, 37, 48–51, 52, 75, 216–17 Taylor Corporation, 48, 217 technology, 11–12 TechShop, 179 TED, 178 Telecom Italia, 210 Teleflora, 21, 152, 212 Tesla, 211 Tesla, Nikola, 178 Teva Pharmaceuticals, 203 Texas, University of, at Austin, 202 Thailand, 7 Thaler, Richard, 117 Third Wave, The (Toffler & Toffler), 68 time: duality of, 60–62 imagination and, 73–77 time management, individual, 80–81 Time Warner Center, 107, 123, 127, 213 timing, 25, 82–83 fast and slow, 62–63 lessons in, 63–71 Toffler, Alvin and Heidi, 68 Toyota, 53 Toyota Production System, 54 Trader Joe’s, 196 Trans International Airlines, 207 Treasury Department, U.S., 213 Tufts University, 211 Tversky, Amos, 115 Twain, Mark, 1 20th Century Fox, 211 Twitter, 63 Undercover Boss, 53, 225n Unilever, 209–10 Union Pacific Railroad, 196 Uniqlo, 65–66, 219 Unique Clothing Warehouse, 219 United Nations, 199 United States, 8, 65, 66 USAID, 174, 175 Vancouver, Canada, 38, 39, 217 Vatera Healthcare Partners, 85, 206 Vidal Sassoon, 144 Villette, Michel, 121–22 Virgin Group, Ltd., 114, 130, 199 Vuillermot, Catherine, 121–22 Vulcan Ventures, 196 Wagner, Todd, 154, 201 Wall Street, 103, 107–8, 124, 126, 198 Wall Street Journal, 34, 211 Walmart, 55 Warhol, Andy, 59 Warner Bros.

When More Is Not Better: Overcoming America's Obsession With Economic Efficiency
by Roger L. Martin
Published 28 Sep 2020

While doing this work, Deming gave a series of lectures on statistical process control and quality management that made him a legend and guru to Japanese companies attempting to become internationally consequential. Deming created a managerial approach for organizing production so as to drive out waste and achieve both quality and efficiency, which famously influenced Toyota and what became known as the Toyota Production System. Thanks in part to Deming’s contributions, which are revered to this day in Japan, the laggard Japanese auto manufacturers became the bane of Detroit carmakers, so much so that American manufacturers, auto and otherwise, came to embrace Deming’s methods in the 1980s and helped drive an American manufacturing revolution.

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See educators teaching See also educators certainty, 170–173, 181, 185 integrative approach to, 174 reductionism, 173–178 technology, 65, 66, 88–89 tenure-based voting rights, 157–159 theorizing, 178–179 Third Congressional District of Maryland, 202, 203 third-party candidates, 201–202 3G Capital, 123–124, 126, 187 tightly coupled systems, 106–107 Tilly, Charles, 192, 194 time-and-motion studies, 42 time horizons, 155–159 Tobin, James, 92 Tobin tax, 92, 103 Tocqueville, Alexis de, 198–199 Ton, Zeynep, 124–126 total quality management, 43 Toyota Production System, 43 Toys “R” Us, 97–98, 99, 101 trade free, 41–42, 56, 63, 66, 150–152 productive friction in, 150–152 trade barriers, 150 trade policy, 56, 150, 151 Trader Joe’s, 125 trade wars, 41 trading technology, 88–91 training, 125 transaction costs, 106 trickle-down economics, 161 Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), 138, 144 two-sided markets, 152–153 Uber, 192 unemployment, 24 United States, metaphor for, 26 University of Chicago, 24 US Census Bureau, 4 US Constitution, 40 US economy achieving balance in, 97–114 efficiency in, 63 as efficient machine, 21–44, 94, 100, 210 gaming the system and, 84–94 growth of, 33–38 imbalances in, 1–17 models of, 22–25 as natural system, 77–94 of 1970s, 5–12, 24 proxies in, 45–57 sectors, 22 user-experience (UX) design, 180 value creation, 130 Verizon, 53–54 voter registration, 205–206, 207 voters, 201–206 Voters Not Politicians, 204 wage growth, 9, 10, 68 wages, 67–70, 125, 150 Wagner School, 180 Wallace, George, 201 Wallenstein Feed & Supply (WFS), 133–134 Washington Mutual, 137 Waste Management Inc.

Why We Work
by Barry Schwartz
Published 31 Aug 2015

All they changed was the production system. The result was a dramatic improvement in both productivity and quality. When you create an environment in which workers are respected, they want to be there and they want to work. The labor costs associated with the production of vehicles dropped almost 50 percent under the Toyota production system. There is little reason to believe that we as a society have learned Toyota’s lesson. Indeed, we seem to have moved in the opposite direction, turning jobs that demand judgment, flexibility, challenge, and engagement into the white-collar equivalent of factory work. Consider education.

Everything Is Obvious: *Once You Know the Answer
by Duncan J. Watts
Published 28 Mar 2011

Subsequently, the bright-spot approach has been used successfully in developing nations, and even in the United States where certain hand-washing practices in a small number of hospitals are being replicated in order to help reduce bacterial infections—the leading cause of preventable hospital deaths—throughout the medical system.28 The bright-spot approach is also similar to what political scientist Charles Sabel calls bootstrapping, a philosophy that has begun to gain popularity in the world of economic development. Bootstrapping is modeled on the famous Toyota Production System, which has been embraced not only across the Japanese automotive firms but also more broadly across industries and cultures. The basic idea is that production systems should be engineered along “just in time” principles, which assure that if one part of the system fails, the whole system must stop until the problem is fixed.

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See Watts (2003, Chapter 9) for an account of Toyota’s near catastrophe with “just in time” manufacturing, and also their remarkable recovery. See Nishiguchi and Beaudet (2000) for the original account. See Helper, MacDuffie, and Sabel (2000) for a discussion of how the principles of the Toyota production system have been adopted by American firms. 30. See Sabel (2007) for more details on what makes for successful industrial clusters, and Giuliani, Rabellotti, and van Dijk (2005) for a range of case studies. See Lerner (2009) for cautionary lessons in government attempts to stimulate innovation. 31.

Data and the City
by Rob Kitchin,Tracey P. Lauriault,Gavin McArdle
Published 2 Aug 2017

The result was a move from Henry Ford’s never-ending production line as a linear production ledger to the Toyota model in which production contained a reflexivity much closer how we might understand the blockchain; that is, how people become part of these systems and could develop practices within them. In 1970, Toyota launched the Toyota Production System (TPS), a method that managed car manufacture and employees more effectively than the failing Fordist model, which had struggled in 1950s and 1960s in Japan. ‘Just-In-Time’ was the title of the manufacturing and conveyance model that informed the demand of car parts in terms of which part was needed, when it was needed, and how many were required.

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Oxford: Blackwell. Maurer, B. (2006) ‘The anthropology of money’, Annual Review of Anthropology 35: 15–36. Maurer, B., Nelms, T.C. and Swartz, L. (2013) ‘“When perhaps the real problem is money itself!”: the practical materiality of Bitcoin’, Social Semiotics 23(2): 261–277. Ohno, T. (1995) Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production. Portland, OR: Productivity Press. Parkes, D. and Thrift, N. (1980) Times, Spaces and Places, A Chronogeographic Perspective. Bath: Pitman Press. Pialoux, M. (1999) ‘The old worker and the new plant’, in P. Bourdieu et al. (eds), The Weight of the World. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 267–281.

Dear Chairman: Boardroom Battles and the Rise of Shareholder Activism
by Jeff Gramm
Published 23 Feb 2016

The factory uses versatile, high-tech German robots, but it also relies on a large human component—several thousand workers to make fewer than 50,000 vehicles. Jeffrey Liker, author of The Toyota Way, said, “This kind of very flexible, self-contained approach is exactly what Toyota did in the early days of the Toyota Production System.”41 It’s fitting that the Tesla factory now occupies the very site where Toyota first revealed the secrets of its manufacturing success to General Motors. In 1983, GM established a joint venture with Toyota called New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., or NUMMI. The deal made sense for both companies.

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Lee, Call Me Roger, 26 39. “403: NUMMI,” This American Life radio program, aired March 26, 2010, Chicago Public Media. 40. Michael Moore, Roger and Me (Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2003), DVD, minute 69. 41. Jeffrey Liker, an engineering professor at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor: “This kind of very flexible, self-contained approach is exactly what Toyota did in the early days of the Toyota Production System.” Alan Ohnsman, “Tesla Motors Cuts Factory Cost to Try to Generate Profit,” Bloomberg Business, April 12, 2012. 42. “NUMMI,” This American Life. 43. Maryann Keller, Rude Awakening: The Rise, Fall, and Struggle for Recovery of General Motors (New York: Morrow, 1989), 131, and James Womack, Daniel T.

The Wisdom of Crowds
by James Surowiecki
Published 1 Jan 2004

Instead of having to make constant resort to orders and threats, companies can rely on workers to find new, more efficient ways of getting things done. That reduces the need for supervision, cuts transaction costs, and allows managers to concentrate on other things. The supreme example of this kind of approach is the Toyota Production System, Toyota’s legendarily efficient system for making cars. At the core of TPS is the idea that frontline workers should be trained to have a wide range of skills and that they have to understand how the production process works from the bottom up if they are to take best advantage of it. At the same time, Toyota has eliminated the classic assembly line, in which each worker was isolated from those around him and, often, worked on a single piece of a vehicle, and substituted for it teams of workers who are effectively put in charge of their own production process.

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For a defense of the bottom-up model see Joseph Blasi and Eric Kruse, In the Company of Owners (New York: Basic Books, 2003); and for a critique of it see James Hoopes, False Prophets (Cambridge: Perseus Publishing, 2003). See also William Joyce, Nitin Nohria, and Bruce Roberson, What Really Works: The 4 + 2 Formula for Sustained Business Success (New York: HarperCollins, 2003). Alfred P. Sloan, My Years with General Motors (New York: Doubleday, 1964). The definitive Western account of the Toyota Production System can be found in James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones, and Daniel Roos, The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production (New York: HarperCollins, 1991). Keller, Rude Awakening: 101. Frederick Winslow Taylor is cited in Stephan H. Haeckel, Adaptive Enterprise (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1999): 30.

Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age
by Duncan J. Watts
Published 1 Feb 2003

It might come as a surprise then that the industrial behemoth that produces Toyota cars and trucks is much more than a single company. In actuality, it is a group of roughly two hundred companies integrated by their common interest in supplying the Toyota company itself with everything from electronic components to seat covers, and also by what is known as the Toyota Production System. TPS is a collection of the same kinds of manufacturing and design protocols that have been adopted by most Japanese (and these days American) industrial firms, so in a way it’s nothing special. What makes it unique is the almost religious zeal with which it is implemented inside the Toyota group.

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Even after installing thousands of additional phone lines, so much information was flowing in and out in the form of queries, suggestions, solutions, and new problems, that the company was often unreachable, leaving the cavalry largely to its own devices. This, however, is where all the training kicked in. After years of experience with the Toyota Production System, all the companies involved possessed a common understanding of how problems should be approached and solved. To them, simultaneous design and engineering was an everyday activity, and because Aisin knew this, they were able to specify their requirements to a minimum level of detail, allowing potential suppliers the greatest possible latitude in deciding how to proceed.

On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane
by Emily Guendelsberger
Published 15 Jul 2019

The US basically had a twenty-year head start on everybody else after World War II because so many countries got so wrecked. Maybe the early ’70s are just when the rest of the world had recovered enough for things to get back to normal. The early ’70s are definitely when Japan had rebuilt enough to become a force to reckon with. That’s about when the Toyota Production System started eating American manufacturers’ lunch—something I know from looking up all the Japanese terms like kaizen and muda that still show up without explanation in signage all over SDF8. And Nixon went to China in ’72, though Mao didn’t die until… what, ’76? There might have been more people in the private workforce after the end of the Vietnam War and the draft—maybe the women who’d taken the places of men who were sent off to fight in Korea and Vietnam didn’t necessarily want to leave when those soldiers rejoined the private sector, and that’s about the time double-income households started becoming the norm.

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” * I’ve been getting scheduled for between thirty and forty hours a week since I started, though never the full forty. * A Gaiman-helmed miniseries adaptation starring David Tennant as Crowley will premiere in 2019 on—where else?—Amazon Prime. * Meaning lean production—the business philosophy of creating more and more value for customers using fewer and fewer resources. It’s an evolution of the Toyota Production System—the reason Japan started eating American manufacturing’s lunch in the 1970s. Lean retains a bunch of Japanese words like kaizen and muda, which you may recall were plastered all over SDF8. Because Jeff Bezos, along with a huge number of tech entrepreneurs, is super into lean. * If something at Walmart comes “from Arkansas,” it means it’s straight from the company’s Bentonville headquarters

Seeking SRE: Conversations About Running Production Systems at Scale
by David N. Blank-Edelman
Published 16 Sep 2018

The Lean manufacturing movement has produced a wealth of design patterns and techniques5 that we can apply to improve any work process. In particular, it is the principle of Kaizen (which roughly translates to “continuous improvement”), born from the Toyota Production System, that speeds transformations and drives an organization’s ability to learn continuously. To bring Kaizen to an organization, there is a method called Kata, also based on Toyota Production System. Kata is an excellent methodology to apply to the challenge of eliminating toil, silos, and request queues. Kata encourages organizations to look at the end-to-end flow of work and methodically experiment until the desired outcome is reached.

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indirect impact of downtime, Indirect impact LinkedIn case study, Project Operating Expense and Abandonment Expense negotiating SLAs with vendors, Negotiating SLAs with vendors running the black box like a service, Running the Black Box Like a Service SLIs, SLOs, SLAs, Service-Level Indicators, Service-Level Objectives, and SLAs-Negotiating SLAs with vendors SLOs, SLOs working with, Working with Third Parties Shouldn’t Suck-Closing Thoughts third-party integrationsautomation, Automation communication, Communication contract termination, Decommissioning decommissioning, Decommissioning disaster planning, Disaster planning LinkedIn case study, Testing and staging logging, Logging monitoring, Monitoring-Uses for RUM playbook for, Playbook: From Staging to Production-Closing Thoughts reporting APIs, Logging synthetic monitoring, Uses for synthetic monitoring testing and staging, Testing and staging tooling, Tooling Three Mile Island nuclear disaster, Critical Decisions Made Under Uncertainty and Time Pressure Cannot Be Scripted, Every Incident Could Have Been Worse throttling, Getting Clever with State ticket-driven request queues, Silos Get in the Way-Silos Get in the Way time quanta, Time Quanta time to detect (TTD), The Virtuous Cycle to the Rescue: If You Don’t Measure It…, Surrogate Metrics time to engage (TTE), The Virtuous Cycle to the Rescue: If You Don’t Measure It…, Surrogate Metrics time to fix (TTF), The Virtuous Cycle to the Rescue: If You Don’t Measure It… Todd, Chad, Replies toilas enemy of SRE, Toil, the Enemy of SRE-Toil, the Enemy of SRE defined, Toil, the Enemy of SRE engineering work vs., Toil, the Enemy of SRE-Toil, the Enemy of SRE enterprise operations model–SRE transition, Toil Limits privacy engineering and, Reducing Toil-Frameworks self-service capabilities and, Self-Service Helps SREs in Multiple Ways tooling, third-party integrations and, Tooling Toyota Production System, Start by Leaning on Lean trainingfor persons with mental disorders, Training on-call, Training transactions, as availability metric, Transactions transgender inclusivity, Benefits Treat, Robert, Replies Treynor Sloss, Benjamin, Leverage Existing Enthusiasm for DevOps, SRE Patterns Loved by DevOps People Everywhere triage, First, Do No Harm trust, forgiveness as corollary to, The corollary to trust is forgiveness 2001: A Space Odyssey (movie), The Awakening of Applied AI U unknown-unknowns, software failure and, Underlying Assumptions Driving On-Call for Engineers, On-Call Is Emergency Medicine Instead of Ward Medicine US Digital Service, Elegy for Complex Systems user error, data loss and, User error V vacation time, Benefits van Zijll, Robin, Replies velocity of change, Provisioning, Change Management, and Velocity vendor lock-in, Project Operating Expense and Abandonment Expense verificationcoverage, Verification Coverage-Storage Watcher data durability engineering and, Verification-Watching the Watchers testing the verification system, Watching the Watchers zero-errors system, The Power of Zero virtual repair debt, Virtual Repair Debt: Exorcising the Ghost in the Machine virtuous cycle, The Virtuous Cycle to the Rescue: If You Don’t Measure It…-The Virtuous Cycle to the Rescue: If You Don’t Measure It… visual analysis, Start by Leaning on Lean W wages (see compensation) Watson, Coburn, Context Versus Control in SRE, Context Versus Control in SRE-Context Versus Control in SRE Wheel of Misfortune (game), Active Learning Example: Wheel of Misfortune Willis, John, SRE Patterns Loved by DevOps, SRE Patterns Loved by DevOps People Everywhere-Conclusion window of vulnerability, Window of Vulnerability Woods' Theorem, Mental Models work-life balance, Developers’ Productivity and Health Versus the Pager-Developers’ Productivity and Health Versus the Pager(see also psychological safety) Y you build it, you run itat Soundcloud, You Build It, You Run It-Introducing Production Engineering deployment platform, The Deployment Platform Production Engineering team and, Introducing Production Engineering-Introducing Production Engineering SysOps and code deploys, Closing the Loop: Take Your Own Pager Yust, Amber, The Intersection of Reliability and Privacy, The Intersection of Reliability and Privacy-Conclusion Z zero-errors systems, The Power of Zero Zhang, Yichun agentzh, Scriptable Load Balancers: The New Kid on the Block Zwieback, Dave, Approaching Operations as an Engineering Problem About the Editor David N.

Capital Allocators: How the World’s Elite Money Managers Lead and Invest
by Ted Seides
Published 23 Mar 2021

I read a case study in business school on Toyota that included a discussion of the “Five Whys.” To get to the root of a problem, the manager on a production line asked questions starting with the word “why” five times. Taiichi Ohno, the former Executive Vice President of Toyota Motor and pioneer of the Toyota Production System in the 1950s, offers this example.14 1. Why did the robot stop? The circuit was overloaded, causing the fuse to blow. 2. Why was the circuit overloaded? There was insufficient lubrication on the bearings, so they locked up. 3. Why was there insufficient lubrication on the bearings?

Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge From Small Discoveries
by Peter Sims
Published 18 Apr 2011

That this was written near the outset of the fields is a testament to how rigorously and deeply Drucker wrestled with these questions. Liker, Jeffrey. The Toyota Way. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004. University of Michigan Professor Jeffrey Liker is a long-time student of Toyota’s processes and culture. This book provides an excellent overview of the Toyota Production System, otherwise known as lean production. Elements include: problem solving and continuous learning (genchi and genbutsu), respect for people and partners (kaizen), flow processes and pull systems to eliminate waste (kaizen), and long-term thinking. This book presents interesting case studies, such as the creation of the Prius, to illustrate fourteen Toyota operating principles.

The Penguin and the Leviathan: How Cooperation Triumphs Over Self-Interest
by Yochai Benkler
Published 8 Aug 2011

It has forced organizational sociologists and management scientists across the country to rethink the long-standing assumption that the practices of Toyota and the other major Japanese automobile manufacturers were some quirky extension of unique Japanese culture, born out of traits so uniquely Japanese they couldn’t be replicated. After all, these were American autoworkers responding to changes negotiated with an American union. The only thing that wasn’t American was the management. How can we account for such an incredible and rapid turnaround? The answer is basically that Toyota Production System incorporates the very elements of a successful cooperative system that we have been examining in the past five chapters. As a result, it has been able to harness precisely the kinds of intrinsic motivations and dynamics that make workers not only more innovative and more productive, but also happier with their work and workplace.

The Great Economists Ten Economists whose thinking changed the way we live-FT Publishing International (2014)
by Phil Thornton
Published 7 May 2014

Roosevelt) 148 New Keynesianism 159, 163 New Neoclassical Synthesis 111 Nicholas I, Tsar 52 NINJA (No Income, No Job, No Assets) homebuyers 61–2 Nixon, Richard 109, 146 Nobel laureates Kenneth Arrow (1972) 191, 213 Gary Becker (1992) 194, 195–6 Ronald Coase (1991) 73 Peter Diamond (2010) 179 Eugene Fama (2013) 160, 187 Milton Friedman (1976) 146, 147–8, 154, 161 Lars Peter Hansen (2013) 160 Friedrich Hayek (1974) 137 Daniel Kahneman (2002) 218, 220 Paul Krugman (2008) 180, 191 Simon Kuznets (1971) 148 Robert Lucas (1995) 202 Robert Merton (1997) 187 Edmund Phelps (2006) 213 Paul Samuelson (1970) 168 Myron Scholes (1997) 187 Vernon Smith (2002) 218 non-accelerating inflation of unemployment (NAIRU) 153–5 Nordhaus, William 171, 178 North American Free Trade Agreement 41, 187 North, Lord 23 Obama, Barack 162, 190 offshoring of jobs 41 OPEC 22 opportunity cost concept 201, 205 optimism bias and overconfidence 226–7 outsourcing 21 overlapping generations (OLG) model 178–80 Pareto, Vilfredo 182 Pareto efficiency 182 pensions and pension funds 178 permanent income hypothesis (Friedman) 148–50 Perot, Ross 41 Phelps, Edmund 154, 213 Philip, Prince 158 Pigou, A.C. 95 Pinochet, Augusto 161 political economy 28, 74, 93 population growth theories Malthus 31 Ricardo 31, 32–3 Posner, Richard 215 Predictably Irrational (Ariely, 2009) 234 prejudice economic perspective of Becker 196–7, 198–9 views of Friedman 157 price, as interaction of supply and demand (Marshall) 75–9 prices and knowledge (Hayek) 131–3 Prices and Production (Hayek, 1931) 126, 130 Principles of Economics (Marshall, 1890) 72, 76, 77–8, 87–8, 188 private savings, influence of taxation policy 43–4 private sector windfalls, impact of stimulus measures 43–4 privatisation of state-owned monopolies 21 246Index productivity, and division of labour 11–14 Prospect Theory (Kahneman) 228–32, 234 protectionism 22–3, 33–5, 41–2, 185 public goods economics 175–8 purchasing price parity (PPP) measures 186 quantitative easing 162, 163 quantity theory of money, criticism by Keynes 97 Rae, John 23 rational choice model (Becker) 197, 212–15, 216 challenge from Kahneman 221–33 rational expectations hypothesis 111, 137 Reagan, Ronald 19, 20, 139, 146, 158, 160 recession drivers of (Keynes) 101 see also Great Recession (2009) reflection effect 229 revealed preference theory 180–1 reverse elasticity 84 Ricardo, Abraham 28–9 Ricardo, David (1772–1823) 27–46, 183 attack on the Corn Laws 33–5 early life and influences 28–30 from finance to economics 30–1 global free trade 40–2 government debt 38–9 influence of Adam Smith 30 international trade and comparative advantage 35–8 key ideas 46 long-term legacy 40–4 on the general workings of the economy 31–3 on wealth creation and distribution 31–3 political career 30 population growth theories 31, 32–3 The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817) 28, 31–3, 188 Ricardian equivalence 38–9 Ricardo effect 33 verdict 45–6 wine and cloth example 35, 37, 40–1 Ricardian equivalence 38–9 Ricardo effect 33 Robbins, Lionel 122, 129 Rogeberg, Ole 211 Rogoff, Kenneth 189–90 Roosevelt, Franklin D. 148 Samuelson, Paul (1915–2009) 37, 106, 137, 159, 167–92 autarky concept 184 early life and influences 169–70 economics in action 190–1 Economics: An Introductory Analysis (1948) 168, 171–3, 188–9 efficient markets 187 ethical judgements in economics 182–3 explaining trade imbalances 184–5 factor price equalisation theorem 186–7 financial economics 187 Foundations of Economic Analysis (1947) 168, 169–70 global public goods 177–8 influence of Keynes 171–2 influence on economic theory 189–90 intergenerational economics 178–80 international economics and trade 183–7 key economic theories and writings 171–87 long-term legacy 188–91 mathematical approach to economic issues 169–70 microeconomic market system 172–3, 174 multiplier effect 174–5 Index247 neoclassical synthesis 174 neo-Keynesianism 168–9, 173–5 Nobel Prize in economic sciences (1970) 168 oscillator model of business cycles 174–5 overlapping generations (OLG) model 178–80 public goods and public finance 175–8 public goods economics 175–8 revealed preference theory 180–1 understanding consumer behaviour 180–1 verdict 191–2 warrant pricing 187 welfare economics 181–3 Scholes, Myron 187 Schwartz, Anna 150–1, 162 Scottish Enlightenment 3 Second World War 95, 96 self-interest theory of Adam Smith 2–3, 6, 8–9, 20 Skidelsky, Robert 114, 128 slavery 10–11 Smith, Adam (1723–90) 1–25, 97, 230–1 A Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) 2, 5–6 division of labour and productivity 11–14 drivers of rates of pay 12–13 early life and character 3–5 free-market mechanism of supply and demand 8–9 free international trade 13–14 from philosophy to economics 6–7 functions funded by general taxation 16 functions of the state 16–18 functions that users should pay for 16–17 idea of ‘natural liberty’ 8 idea of ‘sympathy’ of people for each other 6 key ideas 25 long-term legacy 19–23 market price of a commodity 15–16 on slavery 10–11 personal legacy 23 pin factory example 11–13 role of the state in the economy 9, 10 self-interest theory 2–3, 6, 8–9, 20 taxation principles 17–18 the evil of cartels and monopolies 10–11 the invisible hand 7–9 the market mechanism 15–16 The Wealth of Nations (1776) 2–3, 6, 7–25, 188 verdict 23–4 Smith, Vernon 218 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (US) 42 social security systems 179 social welfare function 182–3 socialism 134–6 sovereign debt crisis in Greece 113–14 Soviet Union, collapse of 140, 158 Sraffa, Piero 130–1 stagflation in the 1970s 154, 173–4 Standard Oil Company of New Jersey 21 state-owned monopolies, privatisation programmes 21 Statecraft (Thatcher, 2002) 19 status quo bias 227–8 stimulus measures, debate over effects of 43–4 stimulus versus austerity debate 43–4, 140–1 Stockholm School of Economics 168 Stolper, Wolfgang 184–5 Stolper–Samuelson theorem 184–5 Strachey, Lytton 94 structural unemployment 155 substitution effect, response to price change 82, 83 Summers, Anita 190 Summers, Lawrence 190 Summers, Robert 190 Sunstein, Cass 234 248Index supply and demand market mechanism 8–9, 15–16, 75–84 supply side economics 127, 201 surplus value of labour (Marx) 54–6 taxation policy influence on private savings 43–4 views of Adam Smith 16–18 taxpayers, view of government debt (Ricardo) 38–9 Thaler, Richard 232, 234, 235 Thatcher, Margaret 19, 138–9, 155, 160–1 The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (Keynes, 1936) 99–106 The Principles of Political Economy (Mill, 1848) 188 The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (Ricardo, 1817) 28, 31–3, 188 The Road to Serfdom (Hayek, 1944) 135, 138, 140 The Wealth of Nations (Smith, 1776) 2–3, 6, 7–25, 188 Thinking, Fast and Slow (Kahneman, 2012) 226–7, 234 time factor and the value of capital (Hayek) 124–6 in the supply and demand model 77–9 Townshend, Charles 5, 6–7 Toyota, production systems 21 trade barriers 22–3, 41–2, 185 Corn Laws 33–5 trade imbalances, Samuelson’s explanation 184–5 trade unions 19 transient income concept 149 Treatise on Human Nature (Hume) 4 Treaty of Versailles 95–6 Tversky, Amos 218, 220, 221–5, 228–33, 235 Ulam, Stanislaw 37 uncertainty and investment volatility 104–5 unemployment causes of (Keynes) 101 frictional 155 ‘natural’ rate of (Friedman) 153–5 relationship with inflation 153–5 structural 155 United States housing market crisis (2008) 61–2, 112 import tariffs after the Wall Street Crash 42 savings and investment imbalance with China 113 trade imbalance with China 45 US Federal Reserve 111–12 action to control inflation 161 and the 2008 financial crisis 235 influence of monetary policy 159 money supply and the Great Depression (1930s) 150–2 quantitative easing (2009 onward) 162 role in the Great Depression (1930s) 159 utilitarianism 31, 182 value and costs of production 75–7 distribution of economic value (Marx) 54–6 surplus value of labour (Marx) 54–6 Voltaire 7 wages drivers of wage rates (Smith) 12–13 effects of reducing (Keynes) 101–2 relationship to rents and profits 32–3 surplus value of labour (Marx) 54–6 Wall Street Crash (1929) 23, 42 Wallich, Henry 190–1 warrant pricing (Samuelson) 187 wealth creation and distribution, view of Ricardo 31–3 Index249 welfare economics 181–3 White, Harry Dexter 108 Wilberforce, William 10 Wittgenstein, Ludwig 121 women in the workforce 202 Wood, Kingsley 106 Woolf, Leonard 94 World Bank Group 109 World Trade Organization (WTO) 22, 40–1, 185 

Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War
by Robert Coram
Published 21 Nov 2002

Richards was the mathematical whiz who came to the Pentagon in 1973, the man whom Christie assigned the job of finding a place for happy hour. Richards had reviewed all of Boyd’s briefings. He later went to work for Lockheed and began studying the fabled Toyota production system, which he found “frighteningly familiar” from his study of maneuver conflict. But the Toyota production system began in the 1950s, about two decades before Boyd began work on “Patterns of Conflict.” The underlying ideas of mutual trust, mission orders, and individual responsibility, and the concepts of “harmony” and “flow” and—most of all—the manipulation of time as a production tool were central ideas in both the Toyota system and the strategy of maneuver conflict.

Getting Better: Why Global Development Is Succeeding--And How We Can Improve the World Even More
by Charles Kenny
Published 31 Jan 2011

Or take the example of Toyota, until recently (when some drivers started to find its accelerator technology a little too sticky) the auto industry’s most profitable firm. Toyota does not produce the most innovative or exciting cars (compare the Tercel to the Mustang). But it does have the Toyota Production System, which reorganized factory floors and pioneered just-in-time parts delivery, among other things.18 There is strong evidence to support Romer’s contention that process technologies are more important to per capita income growth than “traditional” invented technologies. Not least, there is no relationship between a country’s research and development expenditures in “traditional” or invented technologies, on the one hand, and growth rates, on the other.

The Practice of Cloud System Administration: DevOps and SRE Practices for Web Services, Volume 2
by Thomas A. Limoncelli , Strata R. Chalup and Christina J. Hogan
Published 27 Aug 2014

The result of the DevOps approach is higher uptime and lower operational costs. 8.2 The Three Ways of DevOps “The Three Ways of DevOps” is a strategy for improving operations. It describes the values and philosophies that frame the processes, procedures, and practices of DevOps. The Three Ways strategy was popularized by Kim et al.’s (2013) book The Phoenix Project. It borrows from “Lean Manufacturing” (Spear & Bowen 1999) and the Toyota Production System’s Kaizen improvement model. 8.2.1 The First Way: Workflow Workflow looks at getting the process correct from beginning to end and improving the speed at which the process can be done. The process is a value stream—it provides value to the business. The speed is referred to as flow rate or just simply flow.

…

http://dougseven.com/2014/04/17/knightmare-a-devops-cautionary-tale Siegler, M. (2011). The next 6 months worth of features are in Facebook’s code right now (but we can’t see). http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/30/facebook-source-code Spear, S., & Bowen, H. K. (1999). Decoding the DNA of the Toyota production system, Harvard Business Review. Spolsky, J. (2004). Things you should never do, Part I, Joel on Software, Apress. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html Stevens, W. (1998). UNIX Network Programming: Interprocess Communications, UNIX Networking Reference Series, Vol. 2, Prentice Hall.

The New Ruthless Economy: Work & Power in the Digital Age
by Simon Head
Published 14 Aug 2003

I myself only fully grasped the importance of this union role when I visited the joint GM-Toyota assembly plant in Fremont, California, in November 1997. Named New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., (NUMMI), the Fremont plant is a former GM plant that has become a manufacturing showcase in which GM executives and workers can THE ECONOMICS OF UNFAIRNESS learn firsthand how the Toyota production system works. At first glance, the assembly line at Fremont did not look very different from what I had seen at Nissan. Workers performed their repetitive tasks as car bodies moved slowly down the line. At rest areas, there were the familiar plastic-covered worksheets specifying tac for each worker on the line, down to the nearest fraction of a second.

Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business
by Bob Lutz
Published 31 May 2011

(We’ve all heard tales of Coke bottles being deliberately left in doors to produce a severe rattle later on.) I suppose some of this existed in the bad old days many decades ago, but today’s reality is the exact opposite: gleaming buildings, well-landscaped grounds, brilliantly lit inside, with a level of cleanliness that would rival many hospitals.All of the fabled “Toyota Production System” methods were learned and incorporated over the years. Modern equipment, a positive change in union-management working relationships, a union-shared focus on quality, a massive investment in ongoing training, and a relentless drive for greater efficiency had made GM manufacturing in the United States as good as, and often better than, the best of the Japanese automotive manufacturing facilities.

Energy and Civilization: A History
by Vaclav Smil
Published 11 May 2017

Their classic, and now outdated, rigid Fordian variety was based on a moving conveyor introduced in 1913. The modern, flexible Japanese kind relies on just-in-time delivery of parts and on workers capable of doing a number of different tasks. The system, introduced in Toyota factories, combined elements of American practices with indigenous approaches and original ideas (Fujimoto 1999). The Toyota production system (kaizen) rested on continuous product improvement and dedication to the best achievable continuous quality control. Again, the fundamental commonality of all of these actions is minimizing energy waste. The availability of inexpensive electricity has also created new metal-producing and electrochemical industries.

…

Olsson, F. 2007. Järnhanteringens dynamic: Produktion, lokalisering och agglomerationer i Bergslagen och Mellansverige 1368–1910. Umeå: Umeå Studies in Economic History. Olsson, M., and P. Svensson, eds. 2011. Growth and Stagnation in European Historical Agriculture. Turnhout: Brepols. Ohno, T. 1988. Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production. Cambridge, MA: Productivity Press. OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries). 2015. Who gets what from imported oil? http://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/publications/341.htm. Orme, B. 1977. The advantages of agriculture. In Hunters, Gatherers and First Farmers beyond Europe, ed.

23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism
by Ha-Joon Chang
Published 1 Jan 2010

So, starting with the Human Relations School that emerged in the 1930s, which highlighted the need for good communications with, and among, workers, many managerial approaches have emerged that emphasize the complexity of human motivation and suggest ways to bring the best out of workers. The pinnacle of such an approach is the so-called ‘Japanese production system’ (sometimes known as the ‘Toyota production system’), which exploits the goodwill and creativity of the workers by giving them responsibilities and trusting them as moral agents. In the Japanese system, workers are given a considerable degree of control over the production line. They are also encouraged to make suggestions for improving the production process.

Brave New Work: Are You Ready to Reinvent Your Organization?
by Aaron Dignan
Published 1 Feb 2019

The process was divided into eighty-four discrete steps, and none other than Frederick Taylor himself helped to optimize each of them. The build time of a Model T went from twelve hours to just two hours and thirty minutes. Nearly half a century later, Taiichi Ohno and the Toyoda family developed the Toyota Production System, a just-in-time approach to manufacturing that sought to eliminate muri (overburden), mura (inconsistency), and muda (waste). Once again, automotive workflow was forever changed for the better, and not just in the factory but throughout the entire organization. Improving workflow, the way value is created, is a continual source of advantage for the firms that do it.

Ask Your Developer: How to Harness the Power of Software Developers and Win in the 21st Century
by Jeff Lawson
Published 12 Jan 2021

In an attempt to bring discipline and predictability to software development, early practitioners of Agile looked to the world of manufacturing, asking: “How can we bring assembly line predictability to software development?” Thus was born the Kanban workflow methodology, which was literally taken from the Toyota Production System. In Kanban, the Product Owner breaks the week’s work down into small tasks, which get written on sticky notes and hung on a Kanban board. Engineers pull tasks from the board, do the work, move the notes to the “finished” pile, and repeat. When the week ends, they report the number of tasks they’ve finished.

A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas
by Warren Berger
Published 4 Mar 2014

From my interview with Bottino. 26 Why can’t India have 911 emergency service? . . . From my interview with Jacqueline Novogratz of the Acumen Fund; plus, Shaffi Mather’s November 2009 TED Talk, “A New Way to Fight Corruption.” http://www.ted.com/talks/shaffi_mather_a_new_way_to_fight_corruption.html 27 The five whys methodology originated . . . Taiichi Ohno, Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production (Portland, OR: Productivity Press, 1988). Also, Eric Ries, The Lean Startup (New York: Crown Business, 2011). 28 IDEO example of five whys . . . From the company’s “Method Cards,” published by William Stout, November 2003. 29 character actor and author Stephen Tobolowsky . . .

Running Money
by Andy Kessler
Published 4 Jun 2007

From what I could gather, General Motors had built this factory years ago and was losing its shirt keeping it open, shipping thousanddollar bills out with every car it made. It tried to close down but couldn’t. Smelled like the United Auto Workers union had a veto, but somehow our guide skipped the reason. In 1984, Toyota, looking for a U.S. presence, cut a deal with GM to co-own the factory, but only if it was operated under the rules of the Toyota Production System and their culture of a “teamwork-based working environment.” Phil leaned over and whispered, “Are we going to have to do calisthenics before the tour?” Our guide had been promoted off the floor and was singing the benefits of TPS. “It used to be thought that the biggest problem for an assembly line was when the line came to a stop.

The Connected Company
by Dave Gray and Thomas Vander Wal
Published 2 Dec 2014

The Seven-Day Weekend: Changing the Way Work Works By Ricardo Semler, Portfolio Hardcover, 2004. Simply Complexity: A Clear Guide to Complexity Theory By Neil Johnson, Oneworld, 2009. Steve Jobs By Walter Isaacson, Simon and Schuster, 2011. Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition By Ronald S. Burt, Harvard University Press, 1995. Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production By Taiichi Ohno and Norman Bodek, Productivity Press, 1988. The Ultimate Question: How Net-Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer-Driven World By Fred Reichheld, Harvard Business School Press, 2006. A Vision So Noble: John Boyd, the OODA Loop, and America’s War on Terror By Daniel Ford, CreateSpace, 2010.

Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed With Early Achievement
by Rich Karlgaard
Published 15 Apr 2019

Post facto framing is an incredibly powerful tool for late bloomers, as well as everyone else. Smart framing is good for you and your organization. Cognitive psychologists have shown that effectively reframing challenges is a key to organizational success, in settings ranging from automotive manufacturing on the Toyota Production System (TPS), to pet adoption in shelters in Los Angeles, to hospital operating rooms across the country. People who learn to reframe are better able to solve problems, face challenges, and effect significant change, making them better team members. Even more, skilled reframers make better leaders.

We Are Data: Algorithms and the Making of Our Digital Selves
by John Cheney-Lippold
Published 1 May 2017

The term “just-in-time” comes from the twentieth-century capitalist business world, in which companies used information technologies to fine-tune how inventory is shipped “just-in-time” for manufacturing. This strategy reduces overhead—such as warehouse space and extraneous shipping costs. Though it originated with Japanese car makers, the term increasingly is used to reference e-commerce companies, such as Amazon.com. See Yosuhiro Monden, Toyota Production System: An Integrated Approach to Just-in-Time, 4th ed. (Boca Raton, FL: Productivity, 2011); and John Walsh and Sue Godfrey, “The Internet: A New Era in Customer Service,” European Management Journal 18, no. 1 (2000): 85–92. 94. Tung-Hui Hu, “Real Time / Zero Time,” Discourse, 34, nos. 2–3 (2012): 164. 95.

Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets From Inside Amazon
by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr
Published 9 Feb 2021

That’s an aggressive goal, and it cannot be achieved immediately. It serves as a powerful advocate for the customer, and it has led to the development of many systems and processes to prevent and eliminate defects. As we’ve described, one of the best-known of these processes is the Andon Cord, which was adapted from the Toyota Production System: factory workers can pull a physical cord to halt the assembly line when they spot a defect. At Amazon, the customer service people have a virtual cord—actually a button—that they can push when a defect is noticed. It instantly prevents Amazon from selling any more of the affected product until the customer issue is resolved.

Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire
by Rebecca Henderson
Published 27 Apr 2020

They moved to a system under which the Augusta plant was run entirely by “technicians” organized into teams, each of whom was expected to develop a wide range of skills and to actively contribute to the continual improvement of the plant. The plant had no job classifications and no production quotas. Its employees spent four hours a week in training and an additional two hours meeting together to solve problems. In short, the plant invented something remarkably close to the Toyota production system years before Toyota would first make waves in the United States. Augusta was so successful that by 1967 every new P&G plant was required to use the system. The first plant designed from the ground up to use the new techniques was built in Lima, Ohio. Under the leadership of Charlie Krone—an unconventional plant manager who had studied not only Trist but also Tibetan and Sufi mysticism and the work of the spiritual teacher George Gurdjieff—the Lima plant was designed to “embody learning” and to integrate emotional and psychological factors directly into the design of the work.

The Boy Who Could Change the World: The Writings of Aaron Swartz
by Aaron Swartz and Lawrence Lessig
Published 5 Jan 2016

This book (really an excerpt from his forthcoming book) is so very, very good that it just blows me away. Issenberg tells the tale of everything I’ve been trying to say to everyone in politics, but he does it in a real-life three-act morality play that’s so good it could be a model on how to tell a story. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries Ries presents a translation of the Toyota Production System to start-ups—and it’s so clearly the right way to run a start-up that it’s hard to imagine how we got along before it. Unfortunately, the book has become so trendy that I find many people claiming to swear allegiance to it who clearly missed the point entirely. Read it with an open mind and let it challenge you, so you can start to understand how transformative it really is.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
by Charles Duhigg
Published 1 Jan 2011

We emphasized, however, that when that happens, the actual routine that emerges, as opposed to the nominal one that was deliberately designed, is influenced, again, by a lot of choices at the individual level, as well as other considerations (see book [Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change] p. 108).” 6.17 These organizational habits—or “routines” For more on the fascinating topic of how organizational routines emerge and work, see Paul S. Adler, Barbara Goldoftas, and David I. Levine, “Flexibility Versus Efficiency? A Case Study of Model Changeovers in the Toyota Production System,” Organization Science 10 (1999): 43–67; B. E. Ashforth and Y. Fried, “The Mindlessness of Organisational Behaviors,” Human Relations 41 (1988): 305–29; Donde P. Ashmos, Dennis Duchon, and Reuben R. McDaniel, “Participation in Strategic Decision Making: The Role of Organisational Predisposition and Issue Interpretation,” Decision Sciences 29 (1998): 25–51; M.

The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win
by Gene Kim , Kevin Behr and George Spafford
Published 14 Jul 2013

It’s amazing that this business didn’t go under as a result.” He gestures broadly with both arms outstretched, “In the 1980s, this plant was the beneficiary of three incredible scientifically-grounded management movements. You’ve probably heard of them: the Theory of Constraints, Lean production or the Toyota Production System, and Total Quality Management. Although each movement started in different places, they all agree on one thing: WIP is the silent killer. Therefore, one of the most critical mechanisms in the management of any plant is job and materials release. Without it, you can’t control WIP.” He points at a desk near the loading docks closest to us.

The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket
by Benjamin Lorr
Published 14 Jun 2020

In 1950, it was a small family-run business: Eiji Toyoda, Toyota: Fifty Years in Motion (New York: Kodansha USA, 1987); Jeffery Liker, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004). Taiichi Ohno, went to the United States . . . had a vision: Taiichi Ohno, Toyota Production System: Beyond Large Scale Production (Boca: Productivity Press, 1988). it made Toyota the most profitable automaker: Graham Rapier, “These are the 15 most valuable car brands in the world,” Business Insider, September 25, 2017. its net margins grew to be over eight times higher: Alexander Styhre, The Innovative Bureaucracy: Bureaucracy in an Age of Fluidity (New York: Routledge, 2007).

The End of Work
by Jeremy Rifkin
Published 28 Dec 1994

Lincoln, James, Hanada, Mitsuyo, and McBride, Kerry, "Organizational Structures in Japanese and U.S. Manufacturing." Administrative Science Quarterly, voL 31, 1986, pp. 338-364; Kenney, Martin, and Florida, Richard, Beyond Mass Production: The Japanese System and Its Transfer to the US. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 42, 105, 107. 22. Ohno, Taiichi, Toyota Production System (Cambridge, MA: Productivity Press, 1988), pp. 25-26. 23. Womack et aL, pp. 71-103. 24. Cited in Davidow and Malone, p. 126. 25. Kenney and Florida, p. 54. 26. Womack et aL, p. 12; also cited in Technology and Organizational Innovations, Production and Employment (Geneva, Switzerland: International Labor Office, July 1992), p. 33. 27.

Economic Dignity
by Gene Sperling
Published 14 Sep 2020

See economic change Technology Trap, The (Frey), 128, 130 tech platforms, 117–18 Terkel, Studs, 223, 237 Tesler, Michael, 292 Thaler, Richard, 3 Theory of Justice, A (Rawls), 224, 225, 228 Thirteenth Amendment, 67, 260–61 three pillars of economic dignity, xviii, 29–32, 296 care for family, xviii, 30, 33–43 economic respect, xviii, 30, 63–85 pursuit of potential and purpose, xviii, 30, 44–62 thrift savings plans (TSPs), 204 Tiananmen Square protests, 248 Title IX, 31 Tocqueville, Alexis de, 49–50 Tough, Paul, 289 Toyota Production System, 238–39 Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), 142–43, 165–66, 329n trade policies, 122–26, 135, 144–46 Trebesch, Christoph, 295 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, 69–70 Triumph of Injustice, The (Saez and Zucman), 123, 124 Triumph Services, 214 Truman, Harry S., 29 Trumka, Richard, 250, 251 Trump, Donald, (Trump Administration) divisive dignity and, 170, 291–92, 293 farming industry, 118 for-profit colleges, 114 poultry processors, 81 regulations, 107 science and technology public investments, 99 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, 124–25, 168 work requirements, 91 trust gaps, 282–84 Tubman, Harriet, 149 U-6 (unemployment) rate, 8 Uber drivers, 9–10, 192, 230, 252 UBI.

Radical Uncertainty: Decision-Making for an Unknowable Future
by Mervyn King and John Kay
Published 5 Mar 2020

H., ‘Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event in Roanoke, Virginia’, Office of the Press Secretary (13 July 2012) < https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2012/07/13/remarks-president-campaign-event-roanoke-virginia > (accessed 17 Jan 2019) Odurinde, T., ‘UK Household Water Consumption 2015: Facts & Figures’, Hope Spring (12 Oct 2015) < https://www.hopespring.org.uk/uk-household-water-consumption-2015-facts-figures/ > (accessed 25 Oct 2018) Office for National Statistics, ‘Appendix Tables: Homicide in England and Wales’ (2018) Office for National Statistics, ‘English Life Tables No. 17: 2010 to 2012’ (2015a) Office for National Statistics, ‘Infant Mortality (Birth Cohort) Tables in England and Wales’ (2015b) Office for National Statistics, ‘Population of the UK by Country of Birth and Nationality, June 2016 to June 2017’ (2017) Ohno, T., Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-scale Production (New York: Productivity Press, 1988) Ohuchi, N. et al., ‘Sensitivity and Specificity of Mammography and Adjunctive Ultrasonography to Screen for Breast Cancer in the Japan Strategic Anti-Cancer Randomized Trial (J-START): A Randomised Controlled Trial’, The Lancet , Vol. 387, No. 10016 (2016), 341–8 O’Neil, C., Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy (London: Penguin, 2016) Orange, V., Tedder: Quietly in Command (Abingdon: Frank Cass, 2012) Ortiz-Ospina, E. and Roser, M., ‘Trust’ (2019) < https://ourworldindata.org/trust > (accessed 25 Apr 2019) Oxford Dictionary, ‘Rationality’ < https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/rationality > (accessed 14 Jan 2019) Oxford Dictionary, ‘Risk’ < https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/risk > (accessed 16 Jan 2019) Oxford Dictionary, ‘Uncertainty’ < https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/uncertain > (accessed 30 Aug 2019) Pardo, M.

Site Reliability Engineering: How Google Runs Production Systems
by Betsy Beyer , Chris Jones , Jennifer Petoff and Niall Richard Murphy
Published 15 Apr 2016

Nelson, “The Data on Diversity”, in Communications of the ACM, vol. 57, 2014. [Nic12] K. Nichols and V. Jacobson, “Controlling Queue Delay”, in ACM Queue, vol. 10, no. 5, 2012. [Oco12] P. O’Connor and A. Kleyner, Practical Reliability Engineering, 5th edition: Wiley, 2012. [Ohn88] T. Ohno, Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production: Productivity Press, 1988. [Ong14] D. Ongaro and J. Ousterhout, “In Search of an Understandable Consensus Algorithm (Extended Version)”. [Pen10] D. Peng and F. Dabek, “Large-scale Incremental Processing Using Distributed Transactions and Notifications”, in Proc. of the 9th USENIX Symposium on Operating System Design and Implementation, November 2010.

The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor
by David S. Landes
Published 14 Sep 1999

Nissan and Toyota, for example, show significant differences—the former closer to the American pattern; the latter given to more flexible methods. Cf. Cusumano, Japanese Automobile Industry. 23. Abernathy and Clark, p. 36, speak of “fascinating parallels but ultimately sharp contrasts.” Cf. Cusumano, Japanese Automobile Industry, ch. 5, on the Toyota production system and the extraordinary career of Taiichi Ohno, who came to autos from the mother firm (Toyoda automatic looms), saw everything anew, and transformed the character of mass production. 24. Halberstam, The Reckoning, pp. 43, 50. 25. Cf. Womack et al., The Machine That Changed the World, p. 109, on the Honda Accord. 26.

Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World
by Malcolm Harris
Published 14 Feb 2023

Japanese management techniques improved plant efficiency and output quality enough to restore it to competitive shape; the workers seemed to like it better, too. NUMMI amicably negotiated a contract with the UAW, but production workers also seemed to appreciate the tenets of the cohesive Toyota Production System. The factory grouped workers into teams, reduced the number of job descriptions, and rewarded suggestions from the line. A stated “no-layoffs” policy put everyone at ease, and a doctrine of “continual improvement” invited workers to contribute to increasing efficiency. Compared to the stultifying atmosphere at GM, NUMMI valued workers as thinking people, which turned out to work just fine.

Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can't Explain the Modern World
by Deirdre N. McCloskey
Published 15 Nov 2011

“Trade, Money, and the Grievances of the Commonwealth: Economic Debates in the English Public Sphere during the Commercial Crisis of the Early 1620’s.” Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/cdptexdis/td427.htm. Surowiecki, James. 2008. “The Open Secret of Success: Toyota Production System.” New Yorker, May 12. Sutch, Richard. 1991. “All Things Reconsidered: The Life-Cycle Perspective and the Third Task of Economic History.” Journal of Economic History 51 (June): 1–18. Swedberg, Richard. 2009. Tocqueville’s Political Economy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Sylla, Richard, and Gianni Toniolo, eds. 1992.

Strategy: A History
by Lawrence Freedman
Published 31 Oct 2013

Hampered by a lack of capital and technical capacity and by a strike-prone, radicalized work force, Toyota would probably have gone bankrupt were it not for the Korean War and large orders to supply the American military with vehicles. It then began to put together what became known as the Toyota Production System. The starting point was a solution to labor unrest by a unique deal which promised employees lifetime employment in return for loyalty and commitment. Together they would work to establish a system which would reduce waste. Ideas for improving productivity could be raised and explored in “quality circles.”