Taiichi Ohno > Quotes

“Kaizen should be done when times are good or when the company is profitable, since your efforts to streamline and make improvements when the company is poor are limited to reduction in staff. Even if you try to go lean and cut out the fat to improve business performance, when your business is in a very difficult position financially there is no fat to be cut. If you are cutting out muscle, which you need, then you cannot say that your efforts to become lean are succeeding.The most important thing about doing kaizen is to do kaizen when times are good, the economy is strong, and the company is profitable”
― Taiichi Ohno

“Only the Gemba Can Do Cost Reduction”
― Taiichi Ohno, Taiichi Ohnos Workplace Management: Special 100th Birthday Edition

“Machine cycle time and manual cycle time are still mixed up all over the world.”
― Taiichi Ohno, Taiichi Ohnos Workplace Management: Special 100th Birthday Edition

“Knowledge is something you buy with the money. Wisdom is something you acquire by doing it.”
― Taiichi Ohno

“Is it really economical to provide more information than we need - more quickly than we need it? This is like buying a large, high performance machine that produces too much. The extra items have to be stored in a warehouse, which increases the cost.

Toyota's just-in-time production is a way to deliver exactly what the production line needs, when it is needed. This method does not require extra inventory. Similarly, we want information only when we need it. Information sent to production should be timed exactly.”
― Taiichi Ohno, Toyota Production System: Beyond large-scale production

“Perhaps the more that a person is an intellectual the more they are prone to misconceptions.”
― Taiichi Ohno, Taiichi Ohnos Workplace Management: Special 100th Birthday Edition

“Where there is no standard, there can be no improvement.”
― Taiichi Ohno

“Having no problems is the biggest problem of all.”
― Taiichi Ohno

“To implement the Toyota production system in your own business, there must be a total understanding of waste. Unless all sources of waste are detected and crushed, success will always be just a dream.”
― Taiichi Ohno

“Progress cannot be generated when we are satisfied with existing situations.”
― Taiichi Ohno

“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.”
― Taiichi Ohno, Toyota Production System: Beyond large-scale production