would have thought that Sakichi Toyoda, working in the rural hinterlands of
what is now Toyota City in Japan, would have wrought a global powerhouse
that has changed the face of manufacturing? And it has gone way beyond mass
production of automobiles to all types of manufacturing: chemical processing,
pharmaceuticals, nuclear fuel, ship and aircraft construction, medical products,
building construction, shoemaking, sewing, defense bases that repair planes
and ships and tanks, and on and on. And if that’s not enough, there is a revolu-
tion in service industries working to apply lean thinking to drive out waste,
including banks, insurance companies, hospitals, post offices, and more.
The Toyota Waybecame an international best-seller beyond expectations. We
knew that those who were already committed to adopting lean manufacturing
and to spreading lean beyond the shop floor would find something of interest
in the book. But we did not realize how far lean thinking was spreading and
how many people simply admired Toyota and wanted to see what they could
learn from this corporate icon. Readers described feeling in awe when reading
the book, inspired to go out and improve their organizations and their own per-
sonal lives. People read the book in just a few sittings and did not want to put
it down. And all this for a business book?
The most common feedback from people who read the book was that it
opened their eyes to a much broader view of what they could learn from Toyota.
For them, it was more than the tools and methodologies of lean production or
even lean applied to the office. They realized that Toyota had created an entire
system of organization that focused on adding value to customers through people.
The sum total of Toyota’s approach creates a unique culture that people
throughout the world in many different kinds of organizations believe they can
learn from. An overwhelming number of business leaders have written saying
that they are adopting The Toyota Wayas a blueprint for remaking their organi-
zations. While they have reported taking away many different kinds of lessons,
we cannot help wondering if the original book is enough to provide that blue-
print. Our purpose had been to describe Toyota’s management principles with
case examples to bring them to life. The book was not written as a guide on how
to apply the principles to your organization.
A fieldbook is intended to provide practical recipes for success, right? It
should have tools, techniques, and methods that you can follow step by step.
Well, maybe by some definitions. But then that posed a dilemma for us. On the
one hand, the whole premise of The Toyota Waywas that Toyota’s system was
much more than tools and techniques. Those tools and techniques—cells, kanban,
mistake proofing, and quick changeover, among others—have already been well
documented, and there is no shortage of detailed technical descriptions of these
methods. On the other hand, the punch line of the book was that Toyota’s main
contribution has been to create a true learning organization. And the way they
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