The Toyota Way Fieldbook

Book description: what's the key message? While Jeffrey Liker's book The Toyota Way was an examination of the 14 Principles of the Toyota Way, it was not an explicit "how to" guide at a tactical level. This follow up book is intended as the more practical guide to Becoming Lean (to borrow the title of an earlier book written by Liker). The Fieldbook is organized in the framework of Toyota's 4 P's: * Philosophy * Process * People and Partners * Problem Solving The book starts first with "philosophy," not lean tools. It develops an important relationship between the two. The book, in its entirety, emphasizes that copying Toyota tools, regardless of how thoroughly, is not enough to become lean. Early chapters talk about defining your company's purpose and philosophy, providing many examples of Toyota's purpose and unique view of their place in society and the world. From there, the Fieldbook guides you through a reasonable progression of lean topics and methods to work with in your own company. While there is no simple linear progression through a lean transformation, the authors address the challenge well in structuring the flow of the book. Typical "early" stages of lean learning and implementation are covered first, including learning how to identify waste, establishing process stability, and developing flow. The book spends more time on organizational culture and management methods, as opposed to tools. The book remains practical and actionable, rather than theoretical. A strong central portion of the book focuses on developing leaders, how to lead in a lean environment, and how to develop "exceptional" employees. One particular highlight are the detailed examples, including a breakdown of the roles of Group Leaders, Team Leaders, and Team Members in a lean setting, not covered in most lean books. The book recognizes that companies are not Toyota as a starting point. Rather, they are trying to become a Toyota-like lean organization. There is a chapter on respecting suppliers and managing them as Toyota does. The last sections of the book cover Toyota problem solving and implementation strategies, including a discussion of the pros and cons of different common lean transformation or implementation approaches, including kaizen events and the development of a "Company Production System." How does it contribute to the lean knowledge base? This book is a unique compilation of Toyota Production System methods, concepts, and philosophies. There are many adaptable examples of Toyota tools and methods, including Standard Work Combination tables, Cross Training matrices, 5 Why's problem solving analysis, and A3 reports. There are many new case study examples in the book that will be helpful, even to an experienced lean practitioner. The book is also unique in that it is co-authored by a former Toyota team leader, an American, as opposed to reading an older book by Toyota executive Taiichi Ohno or consultant Shigeo Shingo. What are the highlights?

Hats off to David and Jeffery. This book is very well written and using the 4 P style really frames ideas for the reader. I especially like the "Trap" icon information boxes because it takes the concept a level deeper helping the reader avoid common implementation problems. Good Job.

This temendous book is the best book I have read on the specifics of TPS so far, and the one closest to it's elusive spirit - it's an absolute must read for any lean implementer. Far beyond the description of tools, it's a brilliant attempt at giving a feel for what TPS is truly about. For instance, there's a lovely story of one of the authors looking at a westerm traditional automotive assembly chain. At some point, he spots a problem with a carpet in the cars being assembled. Instinctively, he looks for the andon cord, before reminding himself that, of course, there would be one. Then he points out the defect to the supervisor, who answers, that, yeah, he's right - they'll probably spot it at rework and deal with it. Should they talk to someone upstream? Not necessary, the previous process is probably aware of the problem and trying to do something about it. The author then describes his moment of total anguish at seeing a defect go through the process and not being able to do anything about it. This, I believe is a reflection of the true TPS spirit. I know a plant manager who used to work with Toyota before chosing to come back home and take a local non-Toyota plant. The first thing he did was set up an andon board. At first, he was puzzled to see the lights never went off. Then he realized there was nothing, but absolutely nothing in the current social system of the plant that would make the operators trigger an andon signal, or the management react to it. To implement TPS, everything had to be constructed from scratch. The Toyota Way Fieldbook is far more than a companion to The Toyota Way, which is a great management book about Toyota. The Fieldbook goes explicitly into some of the least described aspects of TPS: the development of people thorugh constant problem-solving. The Fieldbook describes both techniques to follow people development, and problem-solving processes which are, in my mind, at the heart of the TPS. I can't recommend this book enough to all readers out there who struggle in trying to implement lean without access to a sensei. This won't replace the sensei, but it's the closest thing to it.

Hats off to Dr Liker in bringing one more precious book to us. Everyone can read this book with ease and understand Toyota principles through case studies. Among many things I liked 1) Flow diagrams, TIPS, TRAPS, case studies and most importantly the visuals 2) More clarity on leveling paradox with examples 3) Toyota technology adoption strategies

The Toyota way, written by Jeff Liker, a coauthor of this book, was great as a look into the softer side of the Toyota philosophy and culture. This book fills in the gaps on technical support and is organized in a manner where a chapter can be assigned at a time and still be useful out of context of the rest of the book. The real life aspects and explanations brought to light by Dave Meier add hands on credence to the work. As a Lean implementor I know I will assign sections for reading to those I work with from this book since alot of people really don't want to read a full book in todays busy world and may not need all of it at once. Still, a good book to read fully if you can as it is packed with information,tips and traps.