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Introduction
The more I know, the more I realize I don’t know.
Socrates
I wrote the first edition of Lean Production Simplified hoping to share what
I’d learned at Toyota. It had been my blind luck to work with patient sen-
seis.
1
I felt that if I could explain things simply, then perhaps I had gained a
certain level of understanding. For the past 16 years, I have been the sensei,
helping companies apply the Toyota system or “Lean.” My practice has taken
me far from the Toyota shop floor into hospitals, power plants, container ter-
minals, and research laboratories. I’m certain that I learn as much as I teach.
And the more I learn, the more I thin ...