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Introduction
“Failure to change is a vice.”
Hiroshi Okuda, Chairman Toyota
A parallel exists between 1979 when my journey of discovery started and the year 2004. Back then, Japan was perceived as a nation of “copiers” providing nothing for us to learn or fear from. We were richer, stronger and more innovative. It was comforting for us to just ignore their growth. And what happened? Toyota, Honda, Panasonic, Yamaha, Sony, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Toshiba, Fanuc, Kyocera, Nikon, Fuji Film and others swiftly rose to be-come manufacturing giants through their quality and productivity growth efforts and many of our industries were either threatened or they disappeared. We just didn’t know what was happening until it was too late.
Today we look at Japan much like we did in the past as a nation struggling with its debt, with its deflation, with its recession, with its economic decline. We look at Japan as if there is nothing for us to learn or fear from them. And once again, boy are we wrong.
In the 1950’s the Toyota Production System was born giving Toyota its eventual competitive advantages – bringing it to its current state as the world’s most successful automotive company; with 50 billion dollars in the bank and a net worth greater then General Motors, Ford and Daimler Chrysler combined.
You may not have heard of Norman Bodek before, but if you’ve have heard of Lean, Cellular Manufacturing, Kanban, the Toyota Production System, JIT, SMED, TPM, QFD, Quality Circles, Hoshin Kanri, Poka-yoke, Visual Factory, Quick and Easy Kaizen, or Kaizen Blitz, you are familiar with my work. I played a major role in discovering these wonderful gems and bringing them out of Japan.
You may know most of the tools and techniques discussed in this book but my goal here is to deliver this information in a way that gives you a fresh perspective on the importance of implementing a total system of continuous improvement. I would also like to share with you some of the stories about what I found, who I met, and the importance of these discoveries to world-class manufacturing. I hope it will be both an informative and fun experience for you.
I will tell you the story of my adventures with Dr. Shingo, Mr. Ohno, Dr. Fukuda, Dr. Deming, Phil Crosby, and many others. I hope that you will recognize and apply the great competitive power that you can derive from their knowledge.
It was all truly magical because when I started in 1979 I hardly knew anything about manufacturing, did not speak Japanese, did not know a single soul in Japan, and didn’t know about any of these great people at all. I would say that I am a slow learner but somehow I intuitively knew the importance of the Toyota Production System and I was persistent in tracking down these powerful geniuses whose work has completely changed the world of manufacturing.
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