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: Great book
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my first book about lean, or something like that and I'm very surprised because in this book you can find a lot of information no just about lean, the most important is the thinking that uses Toyota to accomplished LeanBook Review: Great book!!!
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a great book. I have read "Lean Thinking" and "The Machine that Changed the World" and those are very good books, but "The Toyota Way" definitely does a great job explaining the Toyota Way principles and their applications. This book is very easy to read and you will not want to stop reading. Chapters are short giving you the sense that you are moving forward faster. If you want to really understand the history, the thinking, and the principles of the TPS then you should consider reading this book as your first option. I didn't give it 5 out of 5 because then there is no room for continuous improvement.Book Review: Great classic
Summary: 5 Stars
I am on my third reading of this book. It is a classic and greatly enjoyable as well as educational and informative. I think every manufacturing professional should read it. I also recommend the book Lean Six Sigma That Works: A Powerful Action Plan for Dramatically Improving Quality, Increasing Speed, And Reducing WasteBook Review: Great company! Excellent book! Dont miss it!
Summary: 5 Stars
As you can check the 4Ps and the 14 management principles typed by some reviewers here, most of them are just common sense. However, common sense is really not that common, at least not in the auto industry when one sees the high failure rate, even amongst Japanese auto makers who copy some but not all of the Toyota Way or Toyota Production System TPS. Thanks to the author, many good samples are vividly written of how Toyota fully commits to its long term principles at the expense of short term benefits, respects the communities where its factories locate, supports even the lowest of worker to quality/value devotion (Dare you stop the whole production line for a minor fault you find? They encourage you to do so in Toyota). I am sure many ordinary but top level managers will excuse themselves from the level of Toyota committment on unique circumstances. In Toyota, they ask themselves "why" five times on each problem to nail its root cause, instead of taking anything for granted, as those ordinary managers do. Moreover, Toyota had invested/devoted much to adapt to the cultural, social....difference between Japan and US. Add them all up, that's the difference between survival and death.
I had read many business books of the HBR type. However, if I am asked to make only one recommendation, this is it.
Book Review: Great ideas expanded into a book
Summary: 3 Stars
Liker is no doubt an expert on this subject, and being in the auto industry, his subject is definitely one worth studying. However, the intelligent reader with some knowledge of lean manufacturing would be better off reading the summary of this book and not the book itself.
"The Machine That Changed The World" is a study of lean manufacturing in general, not just Toyota. It gives the whole picture and compares it against European and NA manufacturing methods, a comparison I find more valuable than just learning about Toyota alone.
Nonetheless, Toyota is potentially the best-run manufacturing company in the world, and one of the best-run companies in general. Their ability to use bureaucracy in the positive way it was originally intended - rules and order for continuous improvement - is a best-practice for manufacturing and should be studied and taken seriously. Their values center around employees and the customer - not profits. All of this may seem like jargon, but it's reality. This is what gives this book three stars and may be worth your time.