Translator’s Notes and Insights ixIntroduction 1 CHAPTER 1: Learning from Mr. Taiichi OhnoLesson 1: No One Really Understood What I Was Saying, So I Had to Go to the Gemba and Give Detailed Instructions 7Lesson 2: Kaizen Equals Getting Closer to the Final Process 11Lesson 3: You Need by the Line Only the Parts for the Car You Are Assembling Now 17Lesson 4: Building in Batches Stunts the Growth of Your Operations (Don’t Combine Kanbans and Build a Group of Them) 20Lesson 5: Nine Out of Ten, One Out of Ten 24Lesson 6: The Foreman or Leader Is the One Who “Breaks” the Standard (When You Make an Improvement and You Can Take Out One Person, Give Up Your Best Person) 29Lesson 7: Multiskilling Means Learning the Next Process—Keep It Flowing Until You Reach the Last Process 32Lesson 8: What’s That Red Circle on the Top Right of That Graph? 35Lesson 9: Are You as the Manager Having Them Do It, or Are They Just Doing It Their Way? Which Is It, Man? 39Lesson 10: Standard Work for the Andon Is, “Go There When It Flashes” 42Lesson 11: Standard Work Is the Foundation of Kanban 45Lesson 12: When the Worker Pushes the Start Button, He Has Stopped Moving. Can’t You Guys Figure Out a Way for Him to Push Start While Still Moving? 49Lesson 13: You Bought an Expensive Machine, and Now You Want an Expensive Foreman or Engineer to Run It? Are You Mad? 52Lesson 14: Engineers in Production Become the Horizontal Threads in the Cloth 55Lesson 15: The Lowest Kanban Quantity Should Be Five 60 CHAPTER 2: The Role of the TopThe Management and Structure Needed to Have a Successful Toyota Production System Deployment 65The Role of Top Management: People Who Can Change the Structure (Rules, Organization, and Operations) Based on Changes the Production Environment Faces 70The Foundation of Operations: How the Top Should Look at Things from Four Perspectives 72 CHAPTER 3: The Role of Management: Enable Your Employees to Do the Work WellTo All You Managers Out There 81Managers Are There to Create an Environment in Which Increases in Flow Happen 84Giving Authority: Growing People You Can Empower 89Management Should Make Workplaces That Motivate People to Work and Sustain the Motivation 98 CHAPTER 4: If You Respect Other People, They Will Trust YouTalk to the Top People and Other Expatriates About Their Experience 120Think of Managing an Overseas Plant as a Three-Story Building 121Make an Environment Where It’s OK to Say, “I’m Sorry” 127Make the Toyota Production System a Pillar of the Management of the Entity 129Be Proactive in Encouraging the Toyota Production System Inside and Outside Your Company 132Choose a Local Manager for Working with Suppliers 134How to Deploy the Toyota Production System in Suppliers 137Top Management Must Visit and Coach Suppliers at Least Three Times a Year 139The Factory Must Be Run by Local Management, Starting with the Factory Manager and All the Way Down 141Make Japanese the Offi cial Company Language 143Become an Executive Who People Can Trust. Respect Othersand They Will Trust You 145 Afterword: To Those Top Managers Who Are Thinking of Applying the Toyota Principles to Make a Wonderful Operation 151Index 157