The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement

The newest book in the bestselling Toyota Way series gives executives and managers the blueprint for successful lean process projects that deliver breakthrough results

In The Toyota Way to Excellence, Jeffrey Liker and James Franz covers all steps in creating lean processes, from identifying goals to developing an action plan for implementing and managing change to verifying results and fine-tuning. Through numerous compelling case studies, readers learn how lean masters at Toyota and other corporations design and implement lean processes-and create additional value by integrating these processes with the right people to yield an unbeatable system for continuous improvement.
• Toyota still regularly ranks among the world's most profitable, best-run companies-and managers the world over are eager to read about the methods and models behind this success
• Liker's Toyota Way books have sold nearly a half-million copies, and continue to rack up awards and critical praise
• Toyota Way to Excellence brings concepts of the Toyota Way full circle. Everyone who has read it will need to read this book too


Jeffrey K. Liker (Ann Arbor, MI) is professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering and cofounder and Director of the Japan Technology Management Program at the University of Michigan.

James K. Franz (Saline, MI) learned lean as a Toyota Production Engineer in Japan, and has more than 22 years of manufacturing experience.

Acknowledgments and Guest Author Biographics
Prologue : Is Toyota Still a Great Company Others Can Learn From?

Section I : The Journey to Continuous Improvement
Chapter 1 : Continuous Improvement Towards Excellence
Chapter 2 : PDCA and Striving for Excellence
Chapter 3 : How Process Improvement Can Develop Exceptional People
Chapter 4 : Lean Processes Start with a Purpose
Chapter 5 : Lean Out Processes or Build Lean Systems?

Section II : Case Studies of Lean Transformation through PDCA
Chapter 6 : When Organic Meets Mechanistic : Lean Overhaul and Repair of Ships (with Robert Kucner)
Chapter 7 : An Australian Sensei Teaches a Proud Japanese Company New Tricks: Bringing TPS to a Complex Equipment Manufacturer (with Tony McNaughton)
Chapter 8 : Lean Iron-Ore Mining in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia
Chapter 9 : Bringing Ford’s Ideas Alive at Henry Ford Health System Labs through PDCA Leadership (with Dr. Richard Zarbo)
Chapter 10 : Teaching Individuals to Fly by the Numbers : Transforming Health-Care Process (with Steve Hoeft)
Chapter 11 : Transforming How Products Are Engineered at North American Automotive Supplier (with Charlie Baker)
Chapter 12 : Going Nuclear with Lean (with John Drogosz)

Section III : Making Your Vision a Reality
Chapter 13 : One Time around the Plan-Do-Check-Adjust (PDCA) Loop: A Lean Short Story at Alte Schule
Chapter 14 : Sustaining, Spreading, Deepening : Continuing Turns of the PDCA Wheel
Chapter 15 : Continuous Improvement as a Way of Life

Notes
Index

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