Dec 22 2025
When Katie Anderson, Olivier Larue and I met last Thursday, what did we discuss? We started with the pros and cons of self-publishing versus going through established publishing houses. Then we talked about the challenges and opportunities of providing books in various media. We discussed Olivier’s two new books and, finally, our kids. Katie has the youngest ones; I have the oldest.
Oct 21 2025
In 1995, Peter Drucker conceded that Management By Objectives (MBO) was not “the great cure for management inefficiency” he had believed when he coined the term 41 years earlier. In the meantime, the technique had contributed massively to the decline of American industry by turning managers into metrics gamers.
On 10/7/2025, The Conversation published an article by Aurélien Rouquet, reassuring us that Management by objectives is not a Nazi invention, contrary to what historian Johan Chapoutot claims. Rouquet attributes its paternity to Alfred P. Sloan, the head of General Motors who made it the most powerful company in the world by the end of World War II.
Rouquet’s article also includes a link to another article, dated 9/2/2024, where George Kassar asserts in the title that At 70, management by objectives remains unsurpassed. The most surprising thing, for an article on such a subject, is that it does not cite any company whose performance has been improved by MBO. And the author seems to ignore the existence of an approach that has surpassed MBO for decades, the Hoshin Kanri, which perhaps has the misfortune of coming from Japan.
Sep 29 2025
For most participants, Day 2 of the Global Lean Summit was a visit to the Toyota Material Handling (TMH) plant in Columbus, IN, organized by Sam McPherson and hosted by Tom Lego. There were two busloads of us.
Feb 7 2024
Kerry Creech became President of Toyota Motor Manufacturing of Kentucky (TMMK) in July 2023. He had joined Toyota as a team member in powertrain quality control in Georgetown, KY in 1990. Toyota’s policy of developing people and promoting from within made this career possible. Kerry Creech got a degree in electrical and electronics engineering in 2010 while a manager at Toyota.
There are many dimensions to Toyota’s Human Resource Management, and I would like to focus this post on the specifics of Job Rotation as a policy that sets Toyota apart from most other manufacturing companies. A blog reader asked about it, so I checked with Tracey Richardson for accurate details, at least for Toyota’s US operations when she was working there.
There are two types of rotations, involving, in different ways, production operators – “team members” in Toyota parlance – and the support staff, starting with first-line managers – known as “group leaders.”
Dec 30 2023
This blog’s greatest hits of 2023:
#greatesthitsof2023, #quality, #VSM, #ValueStreamMap, #deming, #toyota
Aug 9 2026
Houses of TPS
The “House of TPS,” is popular in the US and Europe as a summary of the Toyota Production System. We trace its origins and review its design and components in a 2007 version from Toyota Europe. Nigel Thurlow posted it on LinkedIn and says he was in the room when his Toyota colleagues drew it. We explore why the Greek temple theme was adopted, and suggest it may have been to make TPS appear less foreign to Americans.
Once stripped of the temple, it is a stack diagram, and we review the content of the boxes from bottom to top. While popular and widely copied in multiple variants by American consultants, the only Houses of TPS I could find in Japanese are translations of Jeffrey Liker’s.
While the House of TPS resonates with Americans, even the version developed within Toyota fails to provide more than a list of keywords, while leaving out key elements. The best it can do is motivate the reader to dig deeper.
Contents
Share this:
Like this:
By Michel Baudin • Management 0 • Tags: House of Lean, House of TPS, Lean, Toyota, Toyota Production System, TPS