CUSTOMER REVIEWS

Toyota credits its status as a global powerhouse to its people. Now the world's leading authorities on the company give you the methods for developing an exceptional workforce the Toyota way Toyota has changed the economic and business landscape with its 4P model for organizational excellence, consisting of Philosophy, People, Problem Solving, and Process. Jeffrey K. Liker's international bestseller "The Toyota Way" revealed the 4P model in its entirety for the first time and became an instant business phenomenon. Shingo Prize-winner "The Toyota Way Fieldbook" went a step further, showing how to apply the 4Ps to other companies. "Toyota Talent" explores the critical importance of People in the Toyota model. Without an exceptional workforce, the other principles would be useless. Liker and David Meier describe how the company develops high-performing individuals and an outstanding workforce. With illustrative examples, guidance, and proven techniques, this book also shows the best ways to grow talent from within.

Customer Reviews

Practical info for the active lean practitioner, 17/06/2550

Toyota Talent is the third, and newest, book in the "Toyota Way" series:

* The Toyota Way, written by Dr. Jeffrey Liker
* The Toyota Way Fieldbook, by Liker and David Meier
* Toyota Talent, Liker and Meier

They are a trilogy of books, but each is very different and has its own unique place in the lean literature. These books are unlike a series of novels, such as the Harry Potter series (I presume, not having read them), where you necessarily have to read all of them.

The Toyota Way is an outstanding overview of the Toyota methodology, philosophy, and management system. The book does an excellent job of describing how Toyota is, in a high-level manner that can be applied across industries, including the gap between manufacturing and healthcare. The Toyota Way is one of the very first books I would recommend to any executive or manager to get a sense of the overall Toyota system (helping them avoid the urge to implement selected lean tools without understanding the entire system.

The Toyota Way Fieldbook was not, as some might have thought, simply a paperback version of The Toyota Way. The Fieldbook was an altogether different book, with a different purpose. As effective as The Toyota Way was, the Fieldbook was necessary for filling in the gaps in a reader's mind, someone who thought, "Ok, I know how Toyota is.... but how do *I* get there??" The Fieldbook is more of a guide for "how to implement" the Toyota Production System. The Fieldbook is one I would recommend to managers or active practitioners in a lean transformation.

Now, the Toyota Way team is setting out to write what should be considered an altogether new trilogy and series of books -- related to The Toyota Way and the Fieldbook, but with a different purpose. The three books in this series are:

* Toyota Talent
* Toyota Process
* Toyota Problem Solving

These books will,

Liker/Meier Toyota Talent, 08/06/2550

The book accurately captures the essence of Toyota's approach to developing their people. It gives insight into the misunderstood process of standard work and job instruction. Dave Meier's hands on experience at Toyota and practioner application in American industry keys the detail and provides real life examples. Thinking is required and must be a part of the readers’ application. This fact is emphasized appropriately through out the book. Many companies on their lean journey leave people development out of the equation. The book should be required reading for lean leaders.

A must read for any lean practitioner, 11/06/2550

Seriously, if you don't read this, you'll never get any lean effort to stick. Liker and Meier are uncovering yet another huge part of the Toyota Production System: its base! Ultimately, Toyota did not invent the Toyota Production System to have a nice lean method, but to build (and sell!) better cars by developing better thinking, ie competence and judgment in all its employees - "making things is about making people" in TPS parlance. Although this aspect of TPS is oft mentioned, never has it been systematically detailed clearly as in Liker and Meier's book. We can see the effort and application Toyota brings to training and developing its people, operators and management alike.

Why is this so important to lean implementation? Without it the results simply don't sustain themselves. Whereas the kaizen workshops and cost reduction efforts are the bricks that can build a budget, on-the-job training of standard work is the mortar that holds the bricks together. There is no point in improving quality or reducing the cost in a cell by going to single-piece-flow if the team members can't keep up the new standards or if the team members, team leaders and supervisors can't solve all the problems which appear in striving to work at standard.

Toyota Talent shows to what extend and in what level of detail Toyota is interested in analyzing work to sustain standards and look for waste to eliminate. It also give a good idea of how to build a training program to start building on people rather than continuously building on sand. Finally, it gives detailed guidance on how to conduct on-the-job training, and how to train the supervisors to do so.

Experience of working with Toyota engineers and operators is that they simply "know more" about the job at hand. This obvious but crucial factor is a definite (and hard to reproduce) competitive edge which underlies every aspect of Toyota's success with lean, and why so few companies succeed in reproduce

Step-by-step training manual, 13/07/2550

Toyota's worldwide reputation is built on its reputation for quality and reliability, and its remarkably efficient operations. Manufacturers recognize Toyota as the model for superior industrial production in the 21st century. Toyota invests heavily in employee training and education because its executives believe that their workers hold the key to Toyota's competitive advantage. Toyota employees are dedicated, knowledgeable, capable and enthusiastic. Jeffrey K. Liker and David P. Meier say that your organization can benefit from emulating Toyota's training program. It's a matter of making the commitment. Get Abstract highly recommends studying this book. You'll feel as if Toyota's most revered sensei (the Japanese title for "teacher") is explaining, step by step, how your company can organize a job-training program that will lead to Toyota-style success.

Excellent description of Toyota's training method 29/07/2550


Liker and Meier did it again and wrote again an excellent book. This time it's the first in a new series about Toyota. I cannot wait for the next ones to be released.

Toyota Talent's main content is the training methods used by Toyota which originates from the Training Within Industry, Job Instruction module. Training within Industry was a US program to help the war effort. After the war, they send the trainers to Japan to help the Japanese industry. The TWI material made it in Toyota and they improved it and started using it.

I was aware of the TWI JI module before reading this book. I always found it interesting; however, my main job has always been in product development. So, before reading this book, I was quite biased that "it will not work for product development".

Liker and Meier gradually tackled my bias. In chapter 5 they introduce the excellent task variety table. This makes a distinction between the different types of tasks, from routine to no routine. Then they continue describing that every job consists of all the different types of tasks. More mechanical jobs contain more routine tasks; more engineering will contain more craft tasks. I slowly move over my prejudice and start to see that even my own job has a whole bunch of routine tasks. Doing this in the beginning of the book made me more open towards reading the rest.

After this Meier and Liker go into very much detail on how to standardize work, break it down and how to train it to other people. The descriptions are incredibly detailed, concrete and clear.

In the end, it shortly talks about the talent development approach to no routine work, but unfortunately this was only 3 or 4 pages. The books could have included more on that subject also still.

Anyways, I learned a lot. I don't know yet how to apply this knowledge in real life, but I'm sure, somehow I will and this book will be very beneficial. Great work.

Toyota Talent - TWI Job Instruction - a Great Book! , 17/07/2550

Toyota Talent is a must read for manufacturers looking for an excellent and effective Training Program. Liker and Meier do a great job of detailing how Toyota has and continues to successfully use the "Training Within Industry" Job Instruction Program. A tried and true program originating in the good old USA! Being an owner/manager in manufacturing I find this book to be a great addition to the lean and TWI study and a real help in our continued lean and TWI journey. Highly recommended!