Jeffrey K. Liker > Quotes

“Most Business Processes Are 90% Waste and 10% Value-Added Work”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles From the World's Greatest Manufacturer

“Every team member has the responsibility to stop the line every time they see something that is out of standard. That's how we put the responsibility for quality in the hands of our team members.”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles From the World's Greatest Manufacturer

“Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation (genchi genbutsu).”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles From the World's Greatest Manufacturer

“We have to change the culture from one in which people simply do their own job in their own function to make their own numbers look good (a vertical focus) to one in which people are focused horizontally on the customer and on improving value streams that deliver value across functions.”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership: Achieving and Sustaining Excellence through Leadership Development

“All we are doing is looking at the time line from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducing that time line by removing the non-value-added wastes. (Ohno, 1988)”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles From the World's Greatest Manufacturer

“We build cars, not intellectuals”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer

“Standardization Is the Basis for Continuous Improvement and Quality”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles From the World's Greatest Manufacturer

“Andon works only when you teach your employees the importance of bringing problems to the surface so they can be quickly solved.”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles From the World's Greatest Manufacturer

“The act of deeply thinking through problems, energizing people, and aligning them toward a common goal is the only way to practice and develop real leadership ability.”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership: Achieving and Sustaining Excellence through Leadership Development

“The use of a good process that engages people is much more desirable, even if it does not initially achieve all the results.”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership: Achieving and Sustaining Excellence through Leadership Development

“I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. —Ralph Nader, consumer advocate”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership: Achieving and Sustaining Excellence through Leadership Development

“Ownership means once I detect a problem I own it. I am responsible for it.”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, Developing Lean Leaders at All Levels: A Practical Guide

“Automobiles account for about 20 percent of the carbon dioxide from all human sources, yet about one fourth of the world's population enjoys their benefits.”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles From the World's Greatest Manufacturer

“Be responsive to the day-by-day shifts in customer demand rather than relying on computer schedules and systems to track wasteful inventory.”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles From the World's Greatest Manufacturer

“The Toyota Production System can be realized only when all the workers become tortoises. (Ohno, 1988)”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles From the World's Greatest Manufacturer

“You do not simply, mindlessly, implement the best practices. You have to think deeply about your condition. If the “best practice” seems like a useful countermeasure for your problem, you should learn from the best practice; however, what may have worked in some other place may not work for you without adjustment and even further improvement.”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, Developing Lean Leaders at All Levels: A Practical Guide

“Some might debate whether people are born with talent, or whether it is developed. Toyota’s stand is clear—give us the seeds of talent and we will plant them, tend the soil, water and nurture the seedlings, and eventually harvest the fruits of our labor... Of course the wise farmer selects only the best seeds, but even with careful selection there is no guarantee that the seeds will grow, or that the fruits they yield will be sweet, and yet the effort must be made because it provides the best chance of developing a strong crop.”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, Toyota Talent: Developing Your People the Toyota Way

“No matter how many improvements have been made, every process is still full of waste and rife with opportunity to improve.”
― Jeffrey K. Liker

“Sakichi Toyoda’s personal and professional philosophy continues to influence Toyota today through what the company has distilled as his “five main principles”: 1.   Always be faithful to your duties, thereby contributing to the company and to the overall good. 2.   Always be studious and creative, striving to stay ahead of the times. 3. Always be practical and avoid frivolousness. 4.   Always strive to build a homelike atmosphere at work that is warm and friendly. 5.   Always have respect for spiritual matters and remember to be grateful at all times.”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer

“We want organizations to be adaptive, flexible, self-renewing, resilient, learning, intelligent—attributes found only in living systems. The tension of our times is that we want our organizations to behave as living systems, but we only know how to treat them as machines. —Margaret J. Wheatley, author of Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer

“When there is a problem, do not just keep going with the intention of fixing it later. Stop and fix the problem now.”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way Fieldbook

“In the abstract, science is hard to define, and there are endless philosophical debates over what it means. Rother is not focused as much on defining science per se, but rather on developing a practical approach to teaching people to think scientifically in everyday life. He describes it as:8 a mindset, or way of looking at the world/responding to goals and problems, that’s characterized by . . .   Acknowledging that our comprehension is always incomplete and possibly wrong.   Assuming that answers will be found by test rather than just deliberation. (You make predictions and test them with experiments.)   Appreciating that differences between what we predict will happen and what actually happens can be a useful source of learning and corrective adjustment.”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer

“Toyota’s success, in short, is not rooted in its application of a standard “lean” methodology to manufacturing, nor can it be found in any internally implemented equivalent of Six Sigma. Instead, it is rooted in its leaders. More specifically, it can be found in the approach that a Toyota leader takes, seeing self-development and training others as the only possible path, not only for finding the right solution for the problem at hand, but for constantly and consistently improving performance day after day.”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership: Achieving and Sustaining Excellence through Leadership Development

“The Toyota Way, written by the co-author of this book, Jeffrey Liker, summarized the management principles of Toyota in a 4P model: Philosophy, Process, People, and Problem Solving”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, Toyota Culture

“Continuous improvement means getting better every day and is the driver for building a sustainable enterprise. Only those at the gemba can understand the problems fast enough to react quickly. Continuous improvement depends on a different paradigm of the role of the human—all humans are problem detectors and problem correctors—thinking scientifically.”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer

“The Toyota Way, I introduced 14 principles of lean management organized around 4 Ps—philosophy, process, people, and problem solving.”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer

“Toyota’s concept of a good process is one that expects and reveals problems, without blame, not one that is problem-free.”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership: Achieving and Sustaining Excellence through Leadership Development

“The most important factors for success are patience, a focus on long-term rather than short-term results, reinvestment in people, product, and plant, and an unforgiving commitment to quality. —Robert B. McCurry, former Executive VP, Toyota Motor Sales”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer

“tailspin”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles From the World's Greatest Manufacturer

“Challenge: We form a long-term vision, meeting challenges with courage and creativity to realize our dreams.
Kaizen: We improve our business operations continuously, always driving for innovation and evolution.
Genchi Genbutsu: We practice Genchi Genbutsu—believing in going to the source to find the facts to make correct decisions, build consensus, and achieve goals at our best speed.”
― Jeffrey K. Liker, Toyota Culture