Excerpts From "The Toyota Way"

Jan. 19, 2006

14 Management Principles From the World's Greatest Manufacturer.

Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term goals.
Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface.
Use "pull" systems to avoid overproduction.
Level out the workload (heijunka). (Work like the tortoise, not the hare.)
Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time.
Standardized tasks are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment.
Use visual control so that no problems are hidden.
Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes.
Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy and teach it to others.
Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company's philosophies.
Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them to improve.
Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation (genchi genbutsu).
Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options; implement decisions rapidly.
Become a learning organization through relentless reflection (hansei) and continuous improvement (kaizen).