The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement: Linking Strategy and Operational Excellence to Achieve Superior Performance

Contents
Acknowledgments and Guest Author Biographies
Prologue: Is Toyota Still a Great Company Others Can Learn From?
Section One: The Journey to Continuous Improvement
	Chapter 1 Continuous Improvement toward Excellence
		Continuous Improvement as the Pursuit of Excellence
		The Toyota Way as the Path to Excellence
		Lean and Why Companies Fail at It
		Is Lean More than Mediocrity at a Cheaper Price?
		The Real Journey to Excellence Follows PDCA
		Learning Organizations Need Managers Who Are Teachers
		The Sensei Perspective of This Book
	Chapter 2 PDCA and Striving for Excellence
		PDCA as a Way of Thinking and Learning
		The Folly of “Lean Solutions”
		Toyota Business Practices to Grow People and Processes through PDCA
		PDCA Is a Way of Life; Copying Shouldn’t Be
	Chapter 3 How Process Improvement Can Develop Excellent People
		Not Excellent: A Tale of Refrigerator Baskets
		The Torque Wrench Problem: Developing a Manager to Find the Real Root Cause
		The Business Purpose and the People Purpose
		Innovation Comes from Working toward the Targets and Purpose
	Chapter 4 Lean Processes Start with a Purpose
		A Tale of Two Lean Transformations (Composite Cases)
		Inspiring People through a Sense of Purpose
		From Vision to Plans
		A Target Is a Concrete Guidepost to Compare Against
		Combining Short-Term and Long-Term Thinking in a Crisis
		What You Work on Now Depends on Your Situation
		Lean as a Culture of Continuous Improvement
	Chapter 5 Lean Out Processes or Build Lean Systems?
		“Leaning Out” Processes
		Are Organizations Like Machines or Organic Systems?
		Entropy: The Antagonist to Mechanistic Lean Deployment
		An Effective Work Group Can Overcome Entropy
		The Real Purpose of Lean Systems Is to Bring Problems to the Surface
		Mechanistic versus Organic? Not So Fast
Section Two: Case Studies of Lean Transformation through PDCA
	Chapter 6 When Organic Meets Mechanistic: Lean Overhaul and Repair of Ships (with Robert Kucner)
		How We Got Started on Lean at Reman
		Overhaul and Repair Compared to Volume Manufacturing
		Phases of Deployment
		Phase 1: Early Awareness
		Phase 2: Grassroots Deployment
		Phase 3: Spreading Lean Broadly
		Phase 4: Corporate Engagement and the Next Level of Deployment
		Phase 5: Crisis in Lean Manufacturing Deployment
		Phase 6: Regrouping and Redefinition
		Evaluating the Success of Small Ship and Big Ship
	Chapter 7 An Australian Sensei Teaches a Proud Japanese Company New Tricks: Bringing TPS to a Complex Equipment Manufacturer (with Tony McNaughton)
		Background of the Japanese Company and the First Visit
		The Power of Public Humiliation
		The Starting Point: “Component A” TPS Pilot
		Building a Lean System—Summary of Pilot Results and Learning
		Postscript on the Pilot
		Further Expansion
		Navigating the Global Financial Crisis
		Reflection on Building Lean Systems Organically
	Chapter 8 Lean Iron-Ore Mining in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia
		How We Got Here
		Welcome to the Bush
		Getting the Big Picture
		Starting by Understanding the Current State
		The Final Recap of the Gemba Visit
		On to a Future State Vision and an Action Plan
		Communicating across the Site
		Planning for the Morning Meeting
		The First Morning Meeting
		Daily Production Boards
		5S at the Western Ranges Crusher
		Coaching Problem Solving
		Process Confirmation
		Early Deployment Challenges
		Lessons Learned at Start-Up
		Expanding the Efforts
		PDCA as a Key Driver
		The End for Us
	Chapter 9 Bringing Ford’s Ideas Alive at Henry Ford Health System Labs through PDCA Leadership (with Dr. Richard Zarbo)
		The Motivation for Change Started with Quality
		We Wanted It, but We Did Not Understand It
		Beginning the Lean Journey: Every Breakthrough Starts with a Failed Experiment
		A Little Help from a Friend
		Surgical Pathology as Our Learning Laboratory
		Our Henry Ford Production System
		Deepening Ownership by Work Groups
		Lessons Learned
	Chapter 10 Teaching Individuals to Fly by the Numbers: Transforming Health-Care Processes (with Steve Hoeft)
		The Problem
		Background
		Case 1: Insurem (Insurance Company)
		Case 2: T-City Care Homes
		A Final Reflection
	Chapter 11 Transforming How Products Are Engineered at North American Automotive Supplier (with Charlie Baker)
		Who Am I?
		Case Background
		The Problem
		Grasping the Situation at the Gemba
		An Overall Vision for Transformation
		Getting Started on People Engagement and Stability
		Metrics the Lean Way—Making Flow, Waste, and Value Visible
		Teaching Problem Solving: A Case Example
		The Need for Emotional as Well as Intellectual Engagement
		Another Win as a Result of Lean
		The Importance of Tactical Planning by Whiteboard
		Definition of Lean Management Philosophy: ORPMAR
		The Second Stage: Sustaining and Expanding Lean
		Identification of Subject Matter Technical Experts
		Implementing Design for Cost
		Reverse Engineering to Gain Overwhelming Competitive Advantage
		The Change Process—the Underestimated Critical Variable
	Chapter 12 Going Nuclear with Lean (with John Drogosz)
		Background on Lean at Nuclear
		Phases of Deployment
		Phase 0: Structural Changes in Preparation for Lean Deployment
		Phase 1: Lean Awareness and Value Stream Vision
		Phase 2: Implementation of Lean Pilots
		Phase 3: Spreading the Implementation across the Other Value Streams
		Shortage of Internal Lean Leaders to Support and Coach the Expanding Number of Teams
		Phase 4: Management Learning and the Start of Continuous Improvement
		Final Reflection
Section Three: Making Your Vision a Reality
	Chapter 13 One Time around the Plan–Do–Check–Adjust (PDCA) Loop: A Lean Short Story at Alte Schule
		The First Pilot Team Meeting
		Getting Started on the Deep-Dive Pilot
		One Last Hansei before the Executive Presentation
		The Executive Report
		Kate’s Reflections on What She Learned
	Chapter 14 Sustaining, Spreading, Deepening: Continuing Turns of the PDCA Wheel
		The Role of the Lean Sensei
		Developing Internal Coaches as Lean Evangelists
		How Do We Learn Complex Skills Like Lean Coaching?
		The Dangers of Creating a Mechanistic Lean Bureaucracy
		Sustaining the Gains
		Spreading While Deepening
		Managing Change Is Political
	Chapter 15 Continuous Improvement as a Way of Life
		Does Lean Ever Become Self-Perpetuating?
		The Journey Needs Leadership
		Is Continuous Improvement a Realistic Vision?
Notes
Index
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