Toyota Production System

Strategic Concepts & Mechanics

Strategic ManeuverEngage with the Expected, Win with the Surprising

Mental ModelSnowmobile Synthesis from Unrelated Parts

Implementation TacticPromote the Practitioners, Remove the Resisters

Strategic ManeuverShape the Market Before the Fight Begins

Operating PrincipleFingerspitzengefühl Through Deliberate Apprenticeship

Mental ModelImplicit Communication Beats Explicit by Orders of Magnitude

Identity & CultureGarden Design Over Seed Selection

Competitive AdvantageEinheit Outweighs Weapons Count

Mental ModelOrientation Is the Schwerpunkt, Not Speed

Structural VulnerabilityTwenty-Eight Years to Install Toyota's System

Mental ModelIf You Can Be Sand-Tabled, You Have No Strategy

Competitive AdvantageAsymmetric Fast Transients Beat Superior Force

Identity & CultureSurvival on Your Own Terms as Strategic North Star

Risk DoctrineClosed Systems Always Run Down

Strategic ManeuverReconnaissance Pull Over Central Planning

Capital StrategyCost Reduction as Daily Operating Discipline

Implementation TacticMission Contract Replaces Micromanagement

Structural VulnerabilityFog Grows Inside the Slower Organization

Decision FrameworkBe the Customer, Literally

Mental ModelSchwerpunkt Is a Focusing Concept, Not a Goal

Mental ModelBad News Is the Only Useful Intelligence

Primary Evidence

"Options mean more than new products and services. The creators of the Toyota Production System stress the importance of creating a company culture that constantly reduces costs, as a natural part of daily operations, while improving quality and shortening customer delivery span times. By keeping costs on a steady downward slope, they preserve pricing…"

Source:Certain to Win

"Toyota Production System and the works of the creators of that system, particularly Shigeo Shingo and Taiichi Ohno,"

Source:Certain to Win

"The main emphasis of the Toyota Production System, for example, is on constantly reducing the order-to-delivery span. This concept is not, however, a suitable focus for Toyota as a company, since it doesn’t say anything about what car to deliver in a shorter time span. In other words, if shorter order-to-deliver were all, Toyota would still be building better and better 1976 Camrys, faster and faster."

Source:Certain to Win

Appears In Volumes

Certain to Win