Taiichi Ohno Quotes

• Having no problems is the biggest problem of all.

  Taiichi Ohno

  Problem, Risk Management, No Problem

  323 Copy quote

• Without standards, there can be no improvement.

  Taiichi Ohno

  Improvement, Standards

  297 Copy quote

• The Toyota style is not to create results by working hard. It is a system that says there is no limit to people's creativity. People don't go to Toyota to 'work' they go there to 'think'.

  Taiichi Ohno

  Creativity, Thinking, People

  352 Copy quote

• Progress cannot be generated when we are satisfied with existing situations.

  Taiichi Ohno

  Progress, Situation, Satisfied

  365 Copy quote

• All we are doing is looking at the time line, from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducing the time line by reducing the non-value adding wastes.

  Taiichi Ohno

  Order, Giving, Cash

  360 Copy quote

• Make your workplace into showcase that can be understood by everyone at a glance. In terms of quality, it means to make the defects immediately apparent. In terms of quantity, it means that progress or delay, measured against the plan, and is made immediately apparent. When this is done, problems can be discovered immediately, and everyone can initiate improvement plans.

  Taiichi Ohno

  Mean, Quality, Progress

  320 Copy quote

• Costs do not exist to be calculated. Costs exist to be reduced.

  Taiichi Ohno

  Business, Cost, Lean Manufacturing

  Taiichi Ohno (2012). “Taiichi Ohnos Workplace Management : Special 100th Birthday Edition: Special 100th Birthday Edition”, McGraw Hill Professional

  211 Copy quote

• Standards should not be forced down from above but rather set by the production workers themselves.

  Taiichi Ohno

  Risk, Management, Should

  260 Copy quote

• Something is wrong if workers do not look around each day, find things that are tedious or boring, and then rewrite the procedures. Even last month's manual should be out of date

  Taiichi Ohno

  Looks, Each Day, Lasts

  123 Copy quote

• Where there is no Standard there can be no Kaizen

  Taiichi Ohno

  Kaizen, Standards

  207 Copy quote

• The more inventory a company has, the less likely they will have what they need.

  Taiichi Ohno

  Needs, Inventory, Company

  248 Copy quote

• We are doomed to failure without a daily destruction of our various preconceptions.

  Taiichi Ohno

  Destruction, Various, Doomed

  Taiichi Ohno (2012). “Taiichi Ohnos Workplace Management : Special 100th Birthday Edition: Special 100th Birthday Edition”, McGraw Hill Professional

  244 Copy quote

• When you are out observing on the gemba, do something to help them. If you do, people will come to expect that you can help them and will look forward to seeing you again on the gemba.

  Taiichi Ohno

  People, Looks, Helping

  204 Copy quote

• No goal, regardless of how small can be achieved without adequate training.

  Taiichi Ohno

  Goal, Training, Adequate

  190 Copy quote

• Data is of course important in manufacturing, but I place the greatest emphasis on facts.

  Taiichi Ohno

  Data, Important, Facts

  220 Copy quote

• The slower but consistent tortoise causes less waste and is more desirable than the speedy hare that races ahead and then stops occasionally to doze. The Toyota Production System can be realized only when all the workers become tortoises.

  Taiichi Ohno

  Race, Waste, Causes

  237 Copy quote

• If you are going to do kaizen continuouslyyou've got to assume that things are a mess. Too many people just assume that things are all right the way they are. Aren't you guys convinced that the way you're doing things is the right way? That's no way to get anything done. Kaizen is about changing the way things are. If you assume that things are all right the way they are, you can't do kaizen. So change something!

  Taiichi Ohno

  People, Guy, Kaizen

  220 Copy quote

• No one has more trouble than the person who claims to have no trouble

  Taiichi Ohno

  Trouble, Claims, Persons

  144 Copy quote

• Ask 'why' five times about every matter.

  Taiichi Ohno

  Matter, Five, Asks

  152 Copy quote

• The key to the Toyota Way and what makes Toyota stand out is not any of the individual elements…But what is important is having all the elements together as a system. It must be practiced every day in a very consistent manner, not in spurts.

  Taiichi Ohno

  Keys, Important, Together

  201 Copy quote

• If you are going to do TPS you must do it all the way. You also need to change the way you think. You need to change how you look at things.

  Taiichi Ohno

  Thinking, Needs, Looks

  189 Copy quote

• And we are reducing the time line by reducing the non-value-added wastes.

  Taiichi Ohno

  Lines, Waste, Reducing

  134 Copy quote

• The only place that work and motion are the same thing is the zoo where people pay to see the animals move around

  Taiichi Ohno

  Zoos, Moving, Animal

  139 Copy quote

• It takes great effort to follow the rules of a pull system ... thus a half-hearted introduction of a pull system brings a hundred harms and not a single gain.

  Taiichi Ohno

  Effort, Half, Gains

  118 Copy quote

• My first move as the manager of the machine shop was to introduce standardized work.

  Taiichi Ohno

  Moving, Risk, Machines

  100 Copy quote

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