""Toyota Kata" gets to the essence of how Toyota manages continuous improvement and human ingenuity, through its improvement kata and coaching kata. Mike Rother explains why typical companies fail to understand the core of lean and make limited progress--and what it takes to make it a real part of your culture."
--Jeffrey K. Liker, bestselling author of "The Toyota Way"

" "Toyota Kata" is] one of the stepping stones that will usher in a new era of management thinking."
--The Systems Thinker

"How any organization in any industry can progress from old-fashioned management by results to a strikingly different and better way."
--James P. Womack, Chairman and Founder, Lean Enterprise Institute

"Practicing the improvement kata is perhaps the best way we've found so far for actualizing PDCA in an organization."
--John Shook, Chairman and CEO, Lean Enterprise Institute

This game-changing book puts you behind the curtain at Toyota, providing new insight into the legendary automaker's management practices and offering practical guidance for leading and developing people in a way that makes the best use of their brainpower.

Drawing on six years of research into Toyota's employee-management routines, "Toyota Kata" examines and elucidates, for the first time, the company's organizational routines--called "kata"--that power its success with continuous improvement and adaptation. The book also reaches beyond Toyota to explain issues of human behavior in organizations and provide specific answers to questions such as: How can we make improvement and adaptation part of everyday work throughout the organization? How can we develop and utilize the capability of everyone in the organization to repeatedly work toward and achieve new levels of performance? How can we give an organization the power to handle dynamic, unpredictable situations and keep satisfying customers?

Mike Rother explains how to improve our prevailing management approach through the use of two kata: Improvement Kata--a repeating routine of establishing challenging target conditions, working step-by-step through obstacles, and always learning from the problems we encounter; and Coaching Kata: a pattern of teaching the improvement kata to employees at every level to ensure it motivates their ways of thinking and acting.

With clear detail, an abundance of practical examples, and a cohesive explanation from start to finish, "Toyota Kata" gives executives and managers at any level actionable routines of thought and behavior that produce superior results and sustained competitive advantage.

Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award recipient This workbook explains in simple, step-by-step terms how to introduce and sustain lean flows of material and information in pacemaker cells and lines, a prerequisite for achieving a lean value stream. A sight we frequently encounter when touring plants is the relocation of processing steps from departments (process villages) to product-family work cells, but too often these "cells" produce only intermittent and erratic flow. Output gyrates from hour to hour and small piles of inventory accumulate between each operation so that few of the benefits of cellularization are actually being realized; and, if the cell is located upstream from the pacemaker process, none of the benefits may ever reach the customer. This sequel to Learning to See (which focused on plant level operations) provides simple step-by-step instructions for eliminating waste and creating continuous flow at the process level. This isn't a workbook you will read once then relegate to the bookshelf. It's an action guide for managers, engineers, and production associates that you will use to improve flow each and every day. Creating Continuous Flow takes you to the next level in work cell design where you'll achieve even greater cost and lead time savings. You'll learn: * where to focus your continuous flow efforts * how to create much more efficient work cells and lines * how to operate a pacemaker process so that a lean value stream is possible * how to sustain the gains, and keep improving Creating Continuous Flow is the next logical step after Learning to See. The value-stream mapping process defined the pacemaker process and the overall flow of products and information in the plant. The next step is to shift your focus from the plant to the process level by zeroing in on the pacemaker process, which sets the production rhythm for the plant or value stream, and apply the principles of continuous flow. Every p

Take the Kata path to scientific thinking and superior results! In this long-awaited companion to the groundbreaking book Toyota Kata, Mike Rother takes you to the next level of developing business mindset and capability for the 21st Century. Much more than a list of management concepts, The Toyota Kata Practice Guide walks you through the process of making improvement, adaptation, and even innovation routine behavior. Designed to help a coach (the manager) and a learner work together for developing new skillsets, The Toyota Kata Practice Guide delivers the information, insight, and frameworks you need to: * Form habits that help you solve problems and achieve challenging goals * Modify the thought patterns that drive your behavior * Develop an organizational mindset that drives superior results The Improvement Kata gives learners the means to experiment their way through obstacles and achieve tough goals; the Coaching Kata gives managers the means to accelerate and cement their people's learning. In the new age of business, increasing efficiency and decreasing costs is no longer the end game. A manager's job today is to develop patterns of thinking and acting in their people that lead to success with any challenge. Consistent, mindful practice is the best way to do it-and The Toyota Kata Practice Guide is the best way to get there.

From the world's leading expert on implementing Toyota-style continuous improvement-two popular guides to achieving challenging goals in one convenient package Toyota Kata has become the tried and trusted way to develop an agile, scientific approach in any team or organization. This Toyota Kata two-in-one set provides the background knowledge and deployment how-to you need to master the most effective process known for achieving challenging goals-in any company, in any industry: Toyota Kata explains the scientific-thinking skill practice that has driven Toyota's success for decades. This book reveals a people-based management approach that makes continuous improvement and adaptiveness - a growth mindset - a part of everyday work. Toyota Kata Practice Guide focuses on implementation, showing anyone how to make scientific-thinking skill building work in their organization. Fully illustrated, it provides the "Starter Kata" practice routines for this winning approach, which you can build on to align with the needs of your company. You won't find a better kata guide than these two books together. The unchallenged global expert on Kata implementation, Mike Rother is the world's most sought-after expert on the topic. Seize the competitive edge, and enjoy the process, by launching and managing successful kata practice in your company with the best teacher in the business.

Take advantage of your organization's brainpower with Kata-driven continuous improvement "This is the first book I have read that provides a clear picture of what it takes to develop and mobilize creative capability across an organization, to achieve challenging goals." Jeffrey K. Liker, author of The Toyota Way (from the Foreword) Nobody drives continuous improvement in real, tangible ways like Toyota, where everyone at every level works toward common, customer-related goals. At Toyota, continuous improvement is habitual. In his groundbreaking book Toyota Kata, Mike Rother revealed management practices that drive Toyota's success in providing value to their customers. Now, Rother and coauthor Gerd Aulinger provide the routines and know-how for scaling these practices across your entire organization. It all builds on five simple foundational questions at every level: What is the target condition? What is the actual condition? What obstacles stand in the way of the target condition? What is the next step? What have you learned from taking that step? Illustrated cover to cover, Toyota Kata Culture helps you visualize exactly how these methods work-so you can start putting them into action right away. You'll learn how to develop your own iterative process of trial and adjustment, build a deliberate, scientific-thinking culture that grows capability, and make aligned strategic continuous improvement part of everyday work. Achieve your goals and differentiate your organization by following the proven formula laid out in Toyota Kata Culture.