By: Owen Berkeley-Hill

Owen Berkeley-Hill — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 11:47:13 +0000

This is an excellent article which has increased my vocabulary of Toyota expressions, thank you.
However, it saddens me that an article like this has to be published almost half a century after Lean was discovered. It suggests that the Lean movement does not practice hansei.
Some of the reasons you might want to explore:
1. The Lean education model is a busted flush: expecting leaders and managers to coach their people when they have no experience coaching and firmly believe in Command & Control makes no sense;
2. Lean is far too lucrative a revenue stream for so-called Lean experts for it to be allowed to enter the educational mainstream. By now, can’t this be taught to high-school students; to apprentices and to undergraduates?
3. The Teflon coating that has resisted Lean Thinking is the result of the Friedmanites who infest organisations and who focus on maximising shareholder value despite what this does to the health of an organisation because increasing profit also benefits them;
4. The B-Schools across the world reject Lean Thinking because this is an anathema to the Friedmanism they teach their MBA students.

Comments on: The Soft Power of the Toyota Production System—Yokoten, Nemawashi, and More

By: Owen Berkeley-Hill