The Toyota Mindset, The Ten Commandments of Taiichi Ohno

Great work. Down to earth with nuggets of wisdom regarding implementing TPS in the workplace. To be read with lot of reflection and taking copious notes.

This book has some of the best insights from Taiichi Ohno. It is a quick read but you will find you self going back to your highlighted and marked quotes again and again.

The translation seems a bit off, but the book is a great read to understand the brilliant mind of Taiichi Ohno. Highly recommended.

“The Toyota Mindset” is not like any book I have read before – and I have read many TPS/ lean books. The book does not attempt to give the Toyota Production System a structure (like the” Toyota Way” books), or to describe tools (like many other lean books). Instead, the book uses anecdotes from Taiichi Ohno’s career and work to illustrate the mindset being the Toyota Way.Indeed the way that the book is put together gives the impression that Ohno wasn’t bothered about any formal structure, and certainly didn’t adhere to a checklist of actions for improvement. More the book is about Ohno’s philosophy and approach.This is very interesting and shows that Ohno was far more interested in building problem solving capability into teams than he was in grander visions of strategy, waste or cost-reduction. For Ohno, the Toyota Way seems to be about building self-reliable and flexible teams that can think for themselves and have the flexibility to work between different areas to deal with changing demand patterns.For me the key theme of the book is creating teams who are empowered and willing to stop a process immediately when a problem is identified, and fix it there and there. Ohno does not tolerate writing problems on a white board to be addressed later (perhaps by some highly educated “Black Belt”). No, the process must be stopped IMMEDIATELY and the root cause fixed. This is a terrifying approach for most managers, since production is bound to be disrupted (constantly). Indeed, Ohno seems to positively encourage production to be disrupted – the purpose of reducing WIP and inventory is not to cut costs but to expose problems by taking away the “slack” in the process that covers up day to day glitches.This is a philosophy that doesn’t come across in many approaches to lean. “Stop the process immediately” is not something I’ve seen consultants urging on clients, and it doesn’t get much of a profile in most of the lean books I’ve read. This may be because it is a risk that most organisations that profess commitment to “lean principles” are actually scared to face up to. Little wonder most lean implementation peter out.The translation from Japanese is quite clunky in parts, and this adds to the impression of homespun wisdom. But it is an easy read – great for train or airplane – and there are thought-inspiring gold nuggets amongst tales of life in Japanese factories 40+ years ago (I notice no women at all feature in these stories – one for discussion at the book club!).The book is an interesting one and I recommend to lean consultants, and trainers, and those who are interested in what TPS/ lean is really about. Turns out it’s not really about improving flow, removing waste, or reducing operational costs (those are consequences rather than primary aims). TPS is about creating trained and motivated teams working together in a culture where they have no fear of stopping the process, and getting on with problem solving to address a problem identified – a culture where “making the numbers” is not the main goal.An interesting challenge!If you are interested in lean, this book will give you a different outlook from most of which you have read before.

Excellent book for anyone who is involved with single minute exchange of Die programs.

Great book