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What Toyota Production System is Really About?

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Many people don't understand the DNA of the Toyota Production System and the core values of the Toyota Way. I have seen many who think about TPS as a toolkit or lean manufacturing techniques that have worked with Toyota because Toyota has a different process, a stable environment, or a less fluctuation in customer demand. Some others believe that TPS works only with the automotive industry.
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MBO VS Hoshin Kanri for Lean Journey

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Many business schools are still teaching outdated theories even outright damaging concepts and practices making the improvement journey harder for many practitioners. What happened to management by objectives MBO and other methods that are still being taught in business schools? Without proper adaptation on how such methods should work to match the high demand of making improvement, these methods will become worthless and unable to match the real world change and the high demand of increased productivity.  A large body of evidence suggests that the curriculum taught in business schools has only a small relation to what is important for succeeding. Here is why! [Josh Kaufman the International Bestseller of Personal MBA has emphasized that going to business school may not be the best thing to do to learn about business. He dedicated 20 pages in his book examining the benefits and detriments of traditional business school programs (MBA) versus learning business outs...
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Standardization as the Foundation for Healthcare Quality

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Toyota Production System house has standardization work as one of its foundations. Without standardization, all of your nurses, technicians, physicians and administrative staff will perform tasks differently. This makes tracking the source of errors difficult. When leaders perform the traditional gemba walk to observe the situation, there is no benefit from the walk when there is no standard.
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The Global Book Publishing Panic (2024–2026): What Self-Published Authors Should Do in an Era of Platform Volatility

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  By a long-time independent author and publishing consultant We Are Living Through a Global Publishing Panic Between late 2024 and early 2026, something unusual—and deeply structural—is happening in global self-publishing. This is not about one platform. Not about one author. Not about “AI books” alone. It is a systemic panic . Platforms are reacting defensively, unevenly, and sometimes irrationally—driven by fear, legal exposure, AI overload, and weak internal review systems. As authors, we feel the symptoms every day: Silent rejections Mass delistings Distribution blocks without explanation Account probation Books accepted on one platform and rejected everywhere else This is not coincidence. This is platform behavior under stress . The Core Problem: Not Content — Filtering The problem is not that authors suddenly became bad . The problem is how platforms filter, review, and distribute content. Let’s be clear: ❌ Weak platforms transfer risk to authors ✅ Strong platforms absorb...
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Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle is a Learning Cycle Rather than an Improvement Cycle!

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Mistakenly, many people think plan-do-check-act (PDCA) is a continuous improvement cycle, even if they neglect the human part. PDCA does aim to improve the process, but if you have only improved the process without developing and teaching your people, you have put the process at risk of slipping back. People must be trained in the culture of continuous improvement so they can keep managing the process with the new method.
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Jidoka - The Missing Pillar!

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Jidoka is one of the main pillars of the TPS. The TPS is presented as a house with two pillars. One pillar represents just-in-time (JIT), and the other pillar the concept of Jidoka. Take away any of the pillars holding up the roof, and the entire system will collapse. Take out quality, and there is no TPS. Jidoka is a principle of building quality for customers—not inspecting quality. Building quality mean making it right the first time. If you are making defective products or using unacceptable quality standards and filtering these defects out through an inspection system, there is no building quality—and no Jidoka. You are just catching the mistakes made in the manufacturing process. This costs a lot of money and resources and puts the business at risk.
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Apply Kanban to Eliminate Kanban!

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For decades, production has relied on the old principle mass production invented by Henry Ford where parts are being produced in batches and pushed to the market hoping for a customer to buy. Things are based on forecasting and sales were too optimistic. This system disconnects the factory from the customer. The factory is producing only to a forecast. The production at the supplying (assembly) process also called customer process is being regulated by a schedule.
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