Welcome Problems Find Success

In this book, author Nate Furuta, former chair and CEO of Toyota Boshoku America Inc., shares the story of his decades of experience directly leading the establishment of Toyota cultures outside Japan. Furuta was the first Toyota employee on the ground at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI), Toyota’s joint venture in California with General Motors, where he directly led the establishment of the most revolutionary labor-management agreement in the history of the US auto industry. In addition, Furuta was the first Toyota employee on the ground in Georgetown Kentucky at Toyota’s first full-scale, wholly owned manufacturing operation outside Japan, where he led (working directly with President Fujio Cho) the establishment of Toyota’s general management systems and culture there. This book tells the stories of establishing successful operations in those two iconic organizations as well as others. Furuta reveals details, both stories and process descriptions that only he can tell. He takes you along as he and others lead Toyota’s intense globalization from the early 1980s to recent days. He introduces you to the critical leaders in Toyota's history, such as Taiichi Ohno and Fujio Cho as well as Kenzo Tamai, the head of the company’s HRM function in the 1980s. This book is not about human-resource management (HRM) policies and procedures. It provides a deep dive into the way senior leaders embody deep awareness of HRM matters, developing and executing company strategy while at the same time developing organizational capability. The role of senior leaders isn’t just a matter of directing the company to achieve objectives; it is a matter of building the capability to achieve those objectives, consistently, and further developing capability as it executes. Key to this is to develop the awareness, attitude, capability, and practice of identifying problems as progress is made toward achieving objectives, which is, in fact, attained through steadily eliminating each problem as it arises. This becomes a self-reinforcing loop of the organization, tapping in to the essence of solving problems while simultaneously developing ever better problem-solving skills and better problem solvers. This loop propels an organization toward meeting its purpose while developing capability for capability development. Essentially, this book reveals Toyota’s general management systems from the firsthand experience of a Toyota Japanese senior manager and describes, with stories and process examples, the attitude, behaviors, and systems needed to successfully establish and lead in a true Lean business environment.

In this book, author Nate Furuta, former chair and CEO of Toyota Boshoku America Inc., shares the story of his decades of experience directly leading the establishment of Toyota cultures outside Japan. Furuta was the first Toyota employee on the ground at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI), Toyota’s joint venture in California with General Motors, where he directly led the establishment of the most revolutionary labor-management agreement in the history of the US auto industry. In addition, Furuta was the first Toyota employee on the ground in Georgetown Kentucky at Toyota’s first full-scale, wholly owned manufacturing operation outside Japan, where he led (working directly with President Fujio Cho) the establishment of Toyota’s general management systems and culture there. This book tells the stories of establishing successful operations in those two iconic organizations as well as others. Furuta reveals details, both stories and process descriptions that only he can tell. He takes you along as he and others lead Toyota’s intense globalization from the early 1980s to recent days. He introduces you to the critical leaders in Toyota's history, such as Taiichi Ohno and Fujio Cho as well as Kenzo Tamai, the head of the company’s HRM function in the 1980s. This book is not about human-resource management (HRM) policies and procedures. It provides a deep dive into the way senior leaders embody deep awareness of HRM matters, developing and executing company strategy while at the same time developing organizational capability. The role of senior leaders isn’t just a matter of directing the company to achieve objectives; it is a matter of building the capability to achieve those objectives, consistently, and further developing capability as it executes. Key to this is to develop the awareness, attitude, capability, and practice of identifying problems as progress is made toward achieving objectives, which is, in fact, attained through steadily eliminating each problem as it arises. This becomes a self-reinforcing loop of the organization, tapping in to the essence of solving problems while simultaneously developing ever better problem-solving skills and better problem solvers. This loop propels an organization toward meeting its purpose while developing capability for capability development. Essentially, this book reveals Toyota’s general management systems from the firsthand experience of a Toyota Japanese senior manager and describes, with stories and process examples, the attitude, behaviors, and systems needed to successfully establish and lead in a true Lean business environment.

Organizations are under continued pressure to improve and innovate products and services to remain relevant and sustainable. In many cases, some form of “transformation” program is conceived to help achieve this aim. The transformation itself may include the deployment of systems and processes that make the organization more capable of sustaining improvements and driving future change. “Change Agents” often act as coaches, trainers, mentors, and facilitators to embed change. In practice, these Change Agents must deal with resistance throughout different levels of the organization. These Change Agents must be able to act as flexible, multi-situational problem solvers, and teachers of those problem-solving skills. Only organizations that have developed a strong problem-solving capability can hope to survive for sustained periods of time. This book describes many of the obstacles that Change Agents must overcome and the knowledge they need to make them credible with both leaders and the workforce they are tasked with navigating through an organizational transformation. Technical subjects such as diagnostic and improvement tools are described as well as pointing the reader in the direction of relevant theory and practical advice from the authors who have collectively more than 45 years of experience in such roles. Subject matter expertise in Lean Operations, Theory of Constraints, Six Sigma, Change Management, Excellence Models, Daily Management, and Problem Solving is used to describe some essential frameworks that can be brought together in a powerful system of improvement to aid organizations, but most importantly to support and encourage the Change Agent wherever they are in their career. At some point, leaders and managers will also be expected to act as Change Agents. This work brings together simple, universal, accessible, and practical resources to help guide those front-line Change Agents regardless of particular industry or experience.

This book provides a holistic and practical approach to Japanese concepts of lean management throughout the business value chain. It explains principles like Kaizen, Kata or Keiretsu in a pragmatic and logical way with many industry examples and case studies. The authors describe comprehensively how lean management enables companies to concentrate on value-adding activities and processes to achieve a long-term, sustainable competitive advantage. Moreover, the book shows how lean management principles are ultimately applied in industries like aviation, civil engineering, automotive, healthcare, education and other industries.

This two-volume set, IFIP AICT 663 and 664, constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the International IFIP WG 5.7 Conference on Advances in Production Management Systems, APMS 2022, held in Gyeongju, South Korea in September 2022. The 139 full papers presented in these volumes were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 153 submissions. The papers of APMS 2022 are organized into two parts. The topics of special interest in the first part included: AI & Data-driven Production Management; Smart Manufacturing & Industry 4.0; Simulation & Model-driven Production Management; Service Systems Design, Engineering & Management; Industrial Digital Transformation; Sustainable Production Management; and Digital Supply Networks. The second part included the following subjects: Development of Circular Business Solutions and Product-Service Systems through Digital Twins; “Farm-to-Fork” Production Management in Food Supply Chains; Urban Mobility and City Logistics; Digital Transformation Approaches in Production Management; Smart Supply Chain and Production in Society 5.0 Era; Service and Operations Management in the Context of Digitally-enabled Product-Service Systems; Sustainable and Digital Servitization; Manufacturing Models and Practices for Eco-Efficient, Circular and Regenerative Industrial Systems; Cognitive and Autonomous AI in Manufacturing and Supply Chains; Operators 4.0 and Human-Technology Integration in Smart Manufacturing and Logistics Environments; Cyber-Physical Systems for Smart Assembly and Logistics in Automotive Industry; and Trends, Challenges and Applications of Digital Lean Paradigm.

In this book, author Sadao Nomura taps into his decades of experience leading and advising Toyota operations in a wide variety of operations to tell the story of radical improvement at Toyota Logistics & Forklift (TL&F). This book tells in great detail what the author did with TL&F, how they did it, and the dramatic results that ensued. TL&F has long been a global leader in its industry. TL&F is part of Toyota Industries Corporation, which was founded by Toyota Group founder Sakichi Toyoda almost 100 years ago. Sakichi Toyoda is legendary in the Lean community as the originator of the all-important "JIDOKA" pillar of TPS, which ensures 1) built-in quality and 2) respect for people through ensuring that technology works for people rather than the other way around. Although TL&F seemed to be performing well, insiders knew that, as the founding company of the Toyota group, it needed to do better, especially in the quality performance of its global subsidiary operations. But improvement would not be easy in a company that already prided itself in its history as an exemplar in providing highest quality products and services. In 2006, TL&F requested assistance from Sadao Nomura. The initial request was for Mr. Nomura to support quality improvement in three global operations that had become part of TL&F through acquisition: US, Sweden, and France. Improvement was expected at these affiliates, but the dramatic nature of the improvement was not. Further, the improvement activities were so powerful that they were also instituted at the parent operations in Japan. Over a period of almost ten years, the company with the name most associated with product quality experienced quality improvement unparalleled in its history. "Dantotsu" means "extreme," "radical," or "unparalleled."

Denmark is set to achieve 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030. Iceland has topped the gender equality rankings for a decade and counting. South Korea’s average life expectancy will soon reach ninety. How have these places achieved such remarkable outcomes? And how can we apply those lessons to our own communities? The future we want is already here - it's just not evenly distributed. By bringing together for the first time tried and tested solutions to society's most pressing problems, from violence to inequality, Andrew Wear shows that the world we want to live in is already within reach. Solved is a much-needed dose of optimism in an atmosphere of doom and gloom. Informative, accessible and revelatory, it is a celebration of the power of human ingenuity to make the future brighter for everyone.

Lean production is the gold standard in production systems, but has proven famously difficult to implement in North America. Mass production relies on large inventories, uses "push" processes and struggles with long lead times. Moving towards a system that eliminates muda ("waste") caused by overproduction, while challenging, proves necessary for improved efficiency. Often overlooked, value stream mapping is the essential planning stage for any Lean transformation. In Mike Rother and John Shook's essential guide, you follow the value stream mapping undertaken for Acme Stamping, for its current and future state. Fully illustrated and well-organized, Learning to See is a must-see for the value stream manager.