Jim Womack drives the Toyota Mirai and talks lean and green
WOMACK’S YOKOTEN – After a road trip from Boston to Philadelphia driving Toyota’s hydrogen fuel-cell Mirai, Jim reflects on lean and green and why the two are not necessarily the same.
Toyota
Jim Womack on the lean shut-down of Toyota Australia
WOMACK'S YOKOTEN – On October 3, Toyota will cease its manufacturing operations in Australia, but the way it is managing the transition - in the leanest way possible - holds great lessons for us all.
Takao Sakai on product and process development at Toyota
INTERVIEW – At the recent LPPDE event in England, Planet Lean editor Roberto Priolo sat with Takao Sakai to understand how Toyota approaches product and process development and how the Chief Engineer system works.
Polyglot and TPS student – a profile of Toyota Europe’s CIO
PROFILE – A commitment to learning and the humility to understand we never really know enough have led a Belgian mathematician to become a polyglot… and the CIO of Toyota Motor Europe.
Mike Hoseus on why respect is distinctive to Toyota culture
INTERVIEW – Mike Hoseus reflects on his time at Toyota and on how the respect for people side of lean thinking is too often neglected and we tend to focus on continuous improvement only. The two must go together, or your house will collapse.
Interview with Toyota and leadership expert Art Smalley
INTERVIEW – Last month we caught up with Toyota veteran Art Smalley in Las Vegas and discussed with him the role of leadership in a lean transformation and the four different types of problem solving he talks about in his new book.
An interview with Ian Hurst and Keith Edwards, Toyota
INTERVIEW – At the recent UK Lean Summit, Ian Hurst and Keith Edwards of the Toyota Lean Management Centre ran an insightful workshop on standard work. We sat down with them to discuss standardization, respect for people and waste elimination.
Discussing product development with a leading TPS expert
INTERVIEW – PL speaks to one of America's leading experts on the Toyota Production System about Toyota's unique approach to integrating product development with all other functions in the business.
What Toyota and the Green Berets have in common
INTERVIEW - What do the United States Army’s Special Forces unit and Toyota have in common? To find out, we spoke to the Green Berets’ former Director of Training at the LEI summit in New Orleans.
Lean management lessons from Procter&Gamble and Toyota
ARTICLE - What do Toyota and Procter&Gamble have in common? A passion for developing people, a focus on customer satisfaction, and... enviable results that are sustained over time.
The application of lean IT at Toyota Motor Europe
VIDEO INTERVIEW - We spoke with Toyota Motor Europe's CIO at the Lean IT Summit about hoshin and IT, the application of the agile methodology, and the power of coaching.
How Toyota integrates IT across its European operations
INTERVIEW - Pierre Masai, CIO of Toyota Motor Europe, discusses IT across the company's operations in Europe, highlighting the importance of people engagement and experiments.
A former assistant manager recounts his time at Toyota
FEATURE - The author looks back at his many years with Toyota and shares some of the key lessons he learned along the way. What a unique company!
Still Toyota? What about Volkswagen?
COLUMN - Michael Ballé on why Toyota still inspires him in a way that no other organization can, and on the lessons lean thinkers can learn from the two most successful carmakers.
How Toyota Material Handling applies principles of lean IT
INTERVIEW - Håkan Borglund, CIO of Toyota Material Handling Europe, speaks with Planet Lean about Toyota principles and the role of lean IT at Toyota Material Handling.