Presentation Summary - "Developing a Kaizen Culture The Toyota Way"

One of the core values of Toyota is to respect people. Respect is shown to people by providing challenges and opportunities for personal growth. Involving people in the process of kaizen is the way that Toyota challenges and grows people. Kaizen is the art of solving problems with creative thinking.

The trouble is the problems have never been solved before, which means that people do not know how to solve them. The leader must support and guide people as they move through the uncertain journey. It is likely that people will become trapped by the limitations in their thinking and will need assistance to move beyond the obstacles.

Toyota achieves seemingly impossible results because they know how to set appropriate challenges for people. In this session David Meier will reveal the secrets of Toyota’s approach to encouraging total employee involvement in kaizen. This session is a must for front-line leaders, managers, and executives who are responsible for supporting people and helping them to achieve the company’s goals and objectives.
 

Biography

David Meier is an internationally recognized authority on Lean Manufacturing and The Toyota Production System (TPS). David is the co-author of the best selling books, The Toyota Way Fieldbook, (McGraw-Hill, 2005), and Toyota Talent, (McGraw-Hill, 2007) with Jeffrey Liker. In these hands-on books David and Jeff detail the language, concepts, and tools that managers need to bring Toyota’s success-proven practices to life in any organization.

David had the opportunity to learn the Toyota Production System as one of the first group leaders hired at Toyota’s Georgetown, Kentucky facility in the plastics molding department. He was trained and mentored in Japan and Kentucky over a ten-year period by TPS experts including full-time coaching by several Japanese coordinators. In 2001, David founded Lean Associates, Inc., a consulting firm dedicated to supporting companies that are pursuing implementation of the Toyota Production System.

David has been a trainer and speaker for over ten years and he has presented training workshops in North America, Russia, Europe, and Asia for many groups including: the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, AME, The University of Michigan, the Montreal Board of Trade, ORGPROM Russia, Made In China, Inc., The Window and Door Manufacturers Association, AIM Inlines Thailand, Continuous Quality Improvement Network, and the Shingo Prize Conference. David has supported many companies in a variety of industries including healthcare, food, automotive, aerospace, wood and plastic products, chemical processing, metal machining, fabricating, welding, and assembly operations in both manufacturing and non-manufacturing work areas. He specializes in developing TPS expertise within organizations so that they become capable of achieving lean transformation.
Publications by David Meier

* April, 2007
"Toyota Talent" with Jeffery K. Liker
Published by: McGraw Hill

* Sept, 2005
"The Toyota Way Fieldbook," with Jeffery K. Liker
Published by: McGraw Hill

* June, 2001
Chapter 3 "Lean Measurements and Their Use"
Chapter 5 "Business Case Development" Lean Manufacturing: A Plant Floor Guide
Published by: Society of Manufacturing Engineers

* March, 2001
"The Reality of Lean Manufacturing"
Automotive Manufacturing & Production

* June, 2000
"Make Lean Manufacturing Work for You"
Manufacturing Engineering (Co-author)