Tag: jidoka
Zenjidoka Iii: Building Excellent People
Jidoka is one of the core principles of the Toyota Production System, one that empowers production workers to stop the assembly line and solve problems at the moment they occur. Jidoka integrates the two guiding pillars of the Toyota Way, “Continuous Improvement” and “Respect for People.” Recently, Toyota has suffered some major blows to its reputation. Toyota’s [...]
Zenjidoka II: The Power Of Self-Reliance
Jidoka is one of the core principles of the Toyota Production System, one that empowers production line workers to take immediate action the moment a defect is detected. The worker who discovers the defect pulls a red cord and the entire assembly line stops. Co-workers and the supervisor rush over to that worker forming an [...]
Zenjidoka – A Simple Tool For A Complex Problem
I have long-admired and respected Toyota. I have been to their factories, published and written books and articles about their revolutionary production system, known many of their brilliant people, and taught their methods to thousands of students. Like many of Toyota’s admirers, I was shocked and saddened by their disastrous unintended acceleration problems and its [...]
Elephants are Best Eaten One Bite at a Time
As far as vices go my compulsive, obsessive fascination with the Civil War is probably one of the least harmful ones on which to waste an unjustifiable amount of time, money and energy. One observation I made from all of the rooting around old archives and tromping around old battlefields is that, had the people of the north [...]
The Priority of Principles
Ford has something of a scandal unfolding in Germany. Nothing particularly exotic – purchasing people on the take, apparently. “Around 100 German police officers on Monday raided about 30 locations linked to US automaker Ford in the Cologne area: Ford plants, an unidentified company in Leverkusen and employees’ private homes. The state prosecutor’s office said it had for [...]
Lean on the Hoof
Those of us who are in the business of teaching lean are engaged in the endless pursuit of the perfect example, the best analogy, the ideal teaching tool. John Stossel and Dr. Jude Capper, an assistant professor of dairy sciences at Washington State University may have finally provided it. In a piece on what he terms ”another food myth” Stossel [...]
The Shibumi Strategy
The Shibumi Strategy is a little book about a big breakthrough. It tells the story of a hardworking family man who finds himself in crisis when his company closes. Through his struggle, and guidance from unlikely sources, he learns subtle lessons in the form of “personal zen” principles, coming to understand that it is often [...]
Dyslexics Wanted
There’s a good chance that 20 percent of the people reading this article have dyslexia. Are you one of them? Are you proud that you have dyslexia? You should be. People with dyslexia typically are smart and creative. I wish I had it. Perhaps then, I would be leading my own huge consulting and training [...]
The A3 Workbook
The A3 Workbook: Unlock Your Problem-Solving Mind is designed to teach A3 Problem Solving to workers at every level of an organization. This workbook provides a practical tool for solving specific problems or for making a specific proposal, while also encouraging the development of a corporate culture that empowers all employees to support continuous improvement. [...]
