From the Author
I agonized over whether to write a new edition since the original is often referred to as a classic. How do you improve a classic? I finally decided I had enough new ideas and case examples that I wanted to update, if not improve, the original. I created a new model even though I liked the hierarchical model of philosophy, process, people and problem solving. The new model is shown as puzzle pieces, as all four Ps are interrelated, and I added in the center scientific thinking. Scientific thinking has always been central in Toyota--problem solving and decisions based on verified facts, observe without preconceptions, run the experiment, PDCA, etc. The role of scientific thinking became more vivid in the work of Mike Rother's Toyota Kata. I also wanted to add more of an emphasis on planning and reorganized the problem solving principles to include principle 13 on hoshin kanri (aka policy deployment) and principle 14 on bold strategy, some large leaps and many small steps. I hope you enjoy and learn even more from this edition.
From the Back Cover
Jeff Liker's The Toyota Way has long been the definitive classic text that takes you inside Toyota's culture and management system. This revised edition should be required reading for anyone wishing to develop thinking, passionate people who create a truly outstanding organization in any industry.
--John Shook, former Toyota manager and former CEO, Lean Enterprise Institute
Excellence is, by definition, deviance from the norm. When data suggests that a company has been excellent for many years, it guarantees that the company has a philosophy others cannot comprehend or execute. In this powerful book the author brilliantly unfolds what normally cannot be understood. It is a must read.
--Robert E. Quinn, co-author of The Economics of Higher Purpose and Professor of Management and Operations, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
Toyota is undergoing an historic transformation, aided along the way by the speed and flexibility the Toyota Production System (TPS) provides. While many things will change on our journey, the fundamentals of Toyota's DNA will remain the same. Jeff Liker's deep understanding of Toyota and its culture, as defined by The Toyota Way, and his decades-long study of Toyota's operational know-how is practical and relevant now, more than ever.
--Chris Nielsen, Executive Vice President, Product Support & Chief Quality Officer, Toyota Motor North America
You can't really copy Toyota's solutions, but you can emulate a scientific way of developing solutions and blaze your own trail. The principles of Toyota's management system allow Toyota to stay in step with changing environments and meet customer needs better than competitors. Jeff Liker's The Toyota Way is your ringside seat to how Toyota develops a scientific way of thinking and mobilizes the creative capability of its people. You may be surprised by what you and your team can achieve!
--Mike Rother, Author of the bestselling Toyota Kata and The Toyota Kata Practice Guide
Toyota's principles and practices were foundational at Starbucks, as they can be for any business, including retail and service companies. This new edition of The Toyota Way, filled with non-manufacturing examples, should be required reading for any modern business leader.
--Scott Heydon, former Vice President of Global Strategy at Starbucks Coffee Company
New technology is disrupting the automotive industry dramatically and on a massive scale. Toyota is responding by seeking to strengthen its core values and develop new capabilities in software and mobility services. Jeff Liker has brought together both objective data and expert analysis, and has delivered a thought-provoking, insightful narrative on the Toyota Way to navigating challenges.
--James Kuffner, PhD, CEO of Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development and Toyota Director
An update adding value by providing more guidance for successful implementation of a company excellence system. The additional material on lean deployment characteristics, developing habits, work group structure and leader development, lean in a digital age and value stream mapping provide a useful insight for all companies in the ever changing, unpredictable digital world.
--Nicholas Day, Head of Airbus Operating System in France, Airbus SAS
In the second edition of The Toyota Way, Dr. Liker brings his valuable insights on execution, the importance of people, and the behaviors of each and every employee that eventually shape an organization's culture. It dawns on the reader that it's not just the tools and methods that makes the Toyota Production System what it is, but the relentless focus on incremental improvement using meaningful gemba walks, structured toolsets or "scientific thinking," and the role management plays in promoting the desired behaviors that over time get ingrained in the way work is performed.
--Vic Ganesan, Director Operations Excellence, thyssenkrupp Materials NA
About the Author
Jeffrey K. Liker is author of The Toyota Way, and has coauthored nine other books about Toyota including The Toyota Way to Service Excellence, Designing the Future, and The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership. A recent graphic novel with Eduardo Lander and Tom Root tells the story of lean transformation at a mail-order company: Lean in a High-Variety Environment. His articles and books have won thirteen Shingo Prizes for Research Excellence. He was inducted into the Association of Manufacturing Excellence Hall of Fame and the Shingo Academy.
