Got to read this nice writeup by Charles Fishman about Toyota‘s Georgetown Plant. The Toyota philosophy, that has paved the way for its leadership position, is simplistically captured & the article makes for an interesting read.

Some thoughts / anecdotes that caught my attention :

• The Toyota way is a much talked about & a documented secret. Yet its competitors are struggling to emulate the same. Reason – its not about the practices, its about the obsessive & well adopted philosophy. A way of life.
• Constant improvement is not a project or an initiative or a focus area or time boxed. Its a way of life – for all employees – at all times. The job of the managers & supervisors is to identify areas of improvement & improve it – day in & day out!
• An employee quote – “We are all incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished. But you don’t stop. There’s no reason to be satisfied.” Its “continuous” improvement after all. Point for introspection – how many times have we set goals, reached it & plateaued. Do I immediately start looking for the next improvement?
• The author quotes – “by constantly questioning how you do things, by constantly tweaking, you don’t outflank your competition next quarter. You outflank them next decade.”
• There are many examples of process changes & improvements in the article. A theme that emerges across them is that most of them are based on small practical ideas – not silver bullets. And they happen very frequently – ideas are meant to be leveraged upon & they are quickly put to work by Toyota every day.
• At Toyota, there is a presumption of imperfection. Current success is due to yesterday’s work. Look at what you can do today to bring improvements tomorrow.

Follow this link to read this Fast Company article – No Satisfaction at Toyota.