The Toyota Way Fieldbook

Book description: what's the key message?While Jeffrey Liker's book The Toyota Way was an examination of the 14 Principles of the Toyota Way, it was not an explicit "how to" guide at a tactical level. This follow up book is intended as the more practical guide to Becoming Lean (to borrow the title of an earlier book written by Liker). The Fieldbook is organized in the framework of Toyota's 4 P's:* Philosophy* Process* People and Partners* Problem SolvingThe book starts first with "philosophy," not lean tools. It develops an important relationship between the two. The book, in its entirety, emphasizes that copying Toyota tools, regardless of how thoroughly, is not enough to become lean. Early chapters talk about defining your company's purpose and philosophy, providing many examples of Toyota's purpose and unique view of their place in society and the world. From there, the Fieldbook guides you through a reasonable progression of lean topics and methods to work with in your own company. While there is no simple linear progression through a lean transformation, the authors address the challenge well in structuring the flow of the book. Typical "early" stages of lean learning and implementation are covered first, including learning how to identify waste, establishing process stability, and developing flow. The book spends more time on organizational culture and management methods, as opposed to tools. The book remains practical and actionable, rather than theoretical.A strong central portion of the book focuses on developing leaders, how to lead in a lean environment, and how to develop "exceptional" employees. One particular highlight are the detailed examples, including a breakdown of the roles of Group Leaders, Team Leaders, and Team Members in a lean setting, not covered in most lean books.The book recognizes that companies are not Toyota as a starting point. Rather, they are trying to become a Toyota-like lean organization. There is a chapter on respecting suppliers and managing them as Toyota does. The last sections of the book cover Toyota problem solving and implementation strategies, including a discussion of the pros and cons of different common lean transformation or implementation approaches, including kaizen events and the development of a "Company Production System."How does it contribute to the lean knowledge base?This book is a unique compilation of Toyota Production System methods, concepts, and philosophies. There are many adaptable examples of Toyota tools and methods, including Standard Work Combination tables, Cross Training matrices, 5 Why's problem solving analysis, and A3 reports. There are many new case study examples in the book that will be helpful, even to an experienced lean practitioner.The book is also unique in that it is co-authored by a former Toyota team leader, an American, as opposed to reading an older book by Toyota executive Taiichi Ohno or consultant Shigeo Shingo.What are the highlights? What works?The book is very readable and easy to understand. Its layout and format borrows many of the good practices of the "For Dummies" series. You might consider this to be a "Toyota Production System For Dummies" book. There are many callouts with icons indicating "Tips" and "Traps" to look out for in your own lean implementation, to help avoid common lean implementation mistakes or failure modes.This is very helpful, as the authors realize that it can be difficult work implementing lean. They never talk down to you or make you feel bad that you might struggle with the Toyota Way in your own environment, because you are not Toyota.Furthermore, co-author David Meier was a group leader at Toyota. Many perspectives on Toyota come from the process or industrial engineering perspective, but the perspective of front-line supervisor is of significant value and often overlooked.What are the weaknesses? What's missing?While this is clearly a field book in its application focus, it is less clear how it is connected to companion book, The Toyota Way. The 14 principles of that book are mentioned briefly but are not integrated into this book. The Fieldbook has value as a standalone volume, but those looking for a specific companion to The Toyota Way will be disappointed.You might be surprised to not find much information about Kanban, a process made famous by Toyota. Although the concept of pull is covered, there is no chapter on Kanban or examples of calculations or Kanban cards. Thankfully, there are many references and other books available on this topic.How should I read this to get the most out of it?The book can be read straight through. For an experienced lean practitioner, it can easily be used as a reference book. Topics are well organized and tools are easy to find with a well-documented index. For example, if you want an example of an A3 Report, you will find many pages of explanation about the tool and how to use you. You will also find fully completed examples of the tool. This is extremely helpful and adds to the book's value as a practical reference.

This temendous book is the best book I have read on the specifics of TPS so far, and the one closest to it's elusive spirit - it's an absolute must read for any lean implementer. Far beyond the description of tools, it's a brilliant attempt at giving a feel for what TPS is truly about. For instance, there's a lovely story of one of the authors looking at a westerm traditional automotive assembly chain. At some point, he spots a problem with a carpet in the cars being assembled. Instinctively, he looks for the andon cord, before reminding himself that, of course, there would be one. Then he points out the defect to the supervisor, who answers, that, yeah, he's right - they'll probably spot it at rework and deal with it. Should they talk to someone upstream? Not necessary, the previous process is probably aware of the problem and trying to do something about it. The author then describes his moment of total anguish at seeing a defect go through the process and not being able to do anything about it.This, I believe is a reflection of the true TPS spirit. I know a plant manager who used to work with Toyota before chosing to come back home and take a local non-Toyota plant. The first thing he did was set up an andon board. At first, he was puzzled to see the lights never went off. Then he realized there was nothing, but absolutely nothing in the current social system of the plant that would make the operators trigger an andon signal, or the management react to it. To implement TPS, everything had to be constructed from scratch.The Toyota Way Fieldbook is far more than a companion to The Toyota Way, which is a great management book about Toyota. The Fieldbook goes explicitly into some of the least described aspects of TPS: the development of people thorugh constant problem-solving. The Fieldbook describes both techniques to follow people development, and problem-solving processes which are, in my mind, at the heart of the TPS. I can't recommend this book enough to all readers out there who struggle in trying to implement lean without access to a sensei. This won't replace the sensei, but it's the closest thing to it.

This book is an excellent read. The seller sent a book in very good quality with excellent protection. The book was sent very quickly.The book itself is great for management of any company that is growing. Caterpillar embraced the Toyota Way in the early 2000s to grow from a low billion dollar company to a multi billion dollar company. This outline shows you the strategy and tactics used to eliminate waste and expand profitability.

I added this book to my lean collection over a year ago. Those of us that have 10+ years experience with lean, we will find this resource very basic. What the author created was a resource tool for training. I utilize this resource for introducing new leaders to the concepts of lean. In addition, this resource is especially helpful for those who have zero understanding and are somewhat resistant to embrace lean / systems thinking.I find the author created an introduction tool for front-line leaders. Therefore, this is a must have for people at this level.Unfortunately, I have recognized a number of gaps with this text. First, if your culture does not promote these concepts, forget it. If you are a supervisor in a ridged union shop, you will have a hard time implementing these concepts, since the thrust is aimed at non-union and high-performance driven cultures. My second issue is the overall simplistic approach granted to cultural transformation. Even in the best, most highly motivated environments, a lean transformation requires great time and patience. A change agent must understand that positive change occurs when these excellent concepts are `top down, bottom driven.'Lastly, I would like to see more case studies. More specifically, this audience needs case studies on how to transform a culture (from mass production to lean for example) in small pieces. Leaders need more than concepts to learn. As we know and have experienced, leaders, especially front-line leaders, need a road map of how to start. I recommend small case studies that illustrate small success stories.I still highly recommend this resource, for all levels. The author created an easy-to-read guide that motivates the reader to begin cultural transformation. I would like to see a dedicated resource on case studies for (a) union and non-union shops; (b) lean with limited resources such as organizations with few employees, start-ups; (c)lean in highly challenging, toxic work environments; and (d) lean in distribution industries.

This is a great book written by people who worked with Toyota manufacturing...It is filled with many examples, tools and templates which show how Toyota's production system works at a manufacturing line level... But, the interesting approach is how the authors describe Toyota's reasoning behind the use of each of the tools and methods...Examples include developing people though on the job training for the long term benefit of the organization, the focus on creating problem solving skills and continuous learning...The book is filled with data collection and analysis templates which are used by Toyota.

I tentatively downloaded this book for a class I am taking. I was a little nervous because I didn't think there would be any images. I was pleasantly surprised to see images on my Kindle (I have the 6" display Kindle 2) that you can use the five-way selector to enlarge. You can not jump to different chapters, but you can do this manually by searching for each chapter and hi-lighting the "chapter 5" for example. I was worried this book would not be as good or useful on the Kindle as in real life, but I think it will be more useful and faster than having the hard copy version.

Simply the most important book to have on your shelf if you are serious about lean manufacturing. This book is less about theroy and more about practical advice. I find it is the book I take with me as a senior lean consultant. Dave and Jeff have done an excellent job putting these concepts and experineces into word.Some miss the wisdom in these pages but I find it right on the money. Chapter 4 is a chapter I have asked people to read over and over. In my opinion it is were most companies are and don't know it.I recommend this book very highly. Get it, read it more than once.

Thia book is a must read for anyone who wants to lead a successful business!

Interesting and theoretically ideal. Just a little or very subreal on today rushing real world when one person has to do the job of two at triple speed

J’adore. Pour les fans d’amelioRation continue, je recommande.

I've had the The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer book for several years, and read it many times. My work is based on continuous improvement and I have worked in the Toyota family of businesses for several years - this fieldbook really brings TPS to life in a way that western businesses can follow. I like it because it does not prescribe a "does this, do that" approach, but moreover, it simply reinforces the "thinking way" by demonstrating the thinking behind the philosophy of the Toyota Way.It's accurate too, and there is something in there for all businesses, you choose what works for you, and the rest will come later when you are ready. This is one of those books for life, you can read it at different times of your business life and it means different things each time, each reading seems to make sense more than the last time, because you've progressed yourself, and not because the book has changed.

I can totally recommend this book. To my opinion it is a great book not Just for anyone interested in people-centered Leadership, but also anyone working with people in general. It was quite refreshing to see through a real life examples, Isao Yoshino how Katie Anderson Made these leadership lessons much practical.

Livre en bon état et propre à la réception