The Toyota Way

Jeffrey K Liker
Tata McGraw-Hill, 2004

Introduction
It is obvious that there is something special about Toyota. The Japanese automobile manufacturer currently has the fastest product development process in the world. New cars and trucks take 12 months or less to design, while competitors typically require two to three years. Toyota has phenomenal quality levels, that rivals can only dream of matching.
Toyota has turned operational excellence into a strategic weapon not merely through tools and quality improvement methods but a deeper business philosophy rooted in understanding of people and what motivates them. Its success is ultimately based on its ability to develop leaders, build teams, and nurture a supportive culture, to devise strategy, to build deep supplier relationships, and to maintain a learning organization.
Jeffrey Liker is an authority on Toyota. Liker gives an excellent account of how Toyota has become one of the best managed companies in the world. He also outlines how other companies can learn from Toyota and improve their way of doing business. This book makes excellent reading for leaders building learning organizations.

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