The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer by Jeffrey Liker Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer
Book Review: Explainning Toyota's DNA
Summary: 5 Stars
I think this book is the first one for a general audience that explains the management principles and business philosophy behind Toyota's worldwide reputation for quality and reliability.Book Review: Finally, a book on more than Lean Tools!
Summary: 5 Stars
When I was hired as a Process Engineer by Toyota and shipped off to Japan to learn how to be a Toyota engineer, I was lucky enough to be a part of the system that Dr. Liker describes in his book. I can, and do, use the text as a guidepost as I look back at the things we did and can better understand the 'Why' versus just the 'What'. The book does an excellent job in laying out a solid structure for the sometimes ethereal concepts within the Toyota Production System and ties them together in a way that is both easy to understand as well as communicate. With this book, we finally have a body of work that transcends the basic Value, Value Stream, Flow, Pull, Perfection framework (don't get me wrong, I strongly support the Womack/Jones framework at operational levels) and gets the reader behind the results and into the thinking processes that drive the behaviors that deliver the results. While some readers that have written in and panned the book seem to think that Dr. Liker is trying to say Toyota is 'perfect', I think that they have, unfortunately, missed the real message in the book. That is too bad for them, because the message is clear and powerful. One respondent sounded like a frustrated UAW organizer, in fact. I can only encourage them to re-read the text and try and gain a deeper understanding of the concepts that are presented. I'm on my sixth reading and the pages are quite dog-eared, sticky noted, and written all over.
Long story short: If you want to get 'into' the thinking processes that drive the most successful automobile company on the planet (can this be disputed?) and begin to apply these processes to your own area, plant, or company, this is the book for you! Let's not forget, Toyota is building a successful business by bringing manufacturing jobs TO America, not rushing headlong to China, India, or some other Asia-Pacific destination. That speaks volumes to the inherent power of Lean to deliver Value to the customer.
Book Review: Good Book : Good Reviews.
Summary: 4 Stars
I read Dr.Liker's book on Toyota as part of my ongoing research of lean manufacturing. Having read over 2000 articles and various papers on lean, I can say with sufficient impunity that this book gives a deep rooted understanding of the Toyota Way. However, we must take into consideration the views expressed by the team leaders who have been down in the trenches at the Toyota plant; no system is perfect, if it was, it would defeat the purpose of continuous improvement (wouldn't it ?). There is always some gap between theory and practicality, at Toyota they try and keep this gap as little as possibleBook Review: Good Book on Toyota and Lean
Summary: 4 Stars
A good book on the Toyota Production System (TPS) and Lean manufacturing. Liker does a good job of explaining both. I especially liked his cautions about mis-using Lean principles and pitfalls to failure.
Like most business books, the important stuff could have been expressed in many fewer pages. Liker almost gushes about Toyota to the extent that it somethimes reads as a vanity or promotional publication by Toyota - this makes me wonder if it really presents a balanced perspective.
Overall, I recommend it to anyone interested in Toyota or Lean.
Book Review: Good Process improvement ideas
Summary: 4 Stars
This Book is a good read. Gives a common sense approach to Business Process improvements and shows what to expect as results. I started reading this book way before Toyota recalls but find it interesting that the relevance of the content still remained the same even after all the recalls.Goes to show that the Toyota way is time tested. Has been very helpful in creating solutions and managing the business processes both in manufacturing and non manufacturing environments (in the Human Resources and Financials functional areas).
One caution: The content may appear favoring Toyodas in the begining of the book but continuing through the chapters one realizes that it is difficult to take an unbiased approach and still narrate the story!!!Enjoy