Toyota Kata: Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness and Superior Results

Chapter 4Origin and Effects of Our Current Management Approach

Much of our current managerial template comes out of the United States automobile industry of the 1920s, and a short, focused look back at the early history of its two giants, the Ford Motor Company and the General Motors Corporation, sheds light our current thinking.¹

The Ford Motor Company Approach (1906–1927)

In regard to pursuing the 1×1 flow ideal state, Toyota was clearly preceded by the Ford Motor Company, which undertook, arguably, Western manufacturing’s last focused and sustained pursuit of the contiguous flow vision early in the twentieth century. (Note that I am intentionally using the word contiguous rather than continuous.)

Flow Experiments in Fabrication Processes