works and cooperates with Toyota City the city. Why? Did Toyota think it’s rela-
tionship with Toyota City was a benchmark of best practice? Or that the rela-
tionship the company had with the local community outside Nagoya, Japan,
was somehow something to emulate in central Kentucky?
No, of course not. What Toyota knew was that its culture—its corporate cul-
ture not its “Japaneseness”—was what defined it, what gave definition to how
it operates at every level, in every function. David and his colleagues didn’t
hear the phrase “the Toyota Way” at that time, but “Toyota’s way” was precisely
what was being passed on, in all its aspects, both technical and social.
That’s what makes Jeff and David a great team to produce this fieldbook.
Jeff’s years of academic study of socio-technical systems in general, and Toyota in
particular, combined with David’s front-line experience of living the Toyota Way
on the plant floor add up to the practical, yet conceptually insightful guide you
are holding now.
Among experienced Toyota Production System sensei, any attempt such as
this one to “write down” the Toyota Way is a controversial undertaking. It is dif-
ficult to capture in words the essence of any system laced extensively with tacit
knowledge, as is the Toyota Way. This is not, however, because the Toyota Way
is so mysteriousthat it has to be intuited but simply because it is a “learn through
doing” system. As such, even if you are successful at writing it down accurate-
ly, there is still a danger of misleading some readers. Corporate executives are
smart people, often highly educated, accustomed to keeping up with the latest
management fads through books, seminars, executive education. The danger
with attempts at learning TPS through such means is that some readers have a
tendency to think that if they’ve read about something they know it.
The Toyota Way is deceptively simple. It can be too easy to read one of the
simple principles and say, “Sure, I know that... .” Jeff and David have chosen
an approach with this Fieldbook that will try to help you avoid that tendency.
Rather than putting the book down with a sigh of relief thinking “I got it,” you will
be encouraged to embody in practice what you are reading: read, try, reflect...
and learn.
John Shook
Foreword xvii