To increase the quality of the company constantly, the prerequisite is to increase the quality of the people who produce it. But how to increase the quality of people?
Being able to engage people in continuous improvement in each of their actions represents experimentation that produces new knowledge about the process of continuous organizational learning. It does not make sense to give people challenging goals unless they give them the chance to make this growth course, open to bankruptcy, supported by a scientific method that allows them to observe their motivations.
Thanks to the will of Mariacristina Galgano – of Galgano & Associati Consulting – arrives in Italy the latest book by Jeffrey Liker and Michael Hoseus, two of Lean System‘s top experts dedicated to building a culture of continuous improvement.
TOYOTA CULTURE Creating a culture oriented to excellence
by Jeffrey K. Liker and Michael Hoseus
Italian edition edited by Mariacristina Galgano
“Toyota Culture is a theme that is associated with a reality that my father, Alberto Galgano, was very attached and who has been passionate about all these years of activity alongside important Italian companies: the Toyota reality”. Opens with these words Mariacristina Galgano’s presentation of the book “Toyota Culture – Creating a Culture Oriented to Excellence” in the Italian edition curated by her, which took place in Milan on Thursday, October 8, in the presence of numerous managers and entrepreneurs.
“The DNA of an excellent company resides in its culture – added Galgano – But how to create a culture oriented to excellence? How Does the Local Cultural Factor Affect? How to transfer the value of quality and excellence to new entrants? This book seeks to answer these questions, without forgetting that cultures that are completely different from each other are also within the same company. ”
“The interest in this theme – adds M.C. Galgano – is born from the fact that the new frontier of lean programs generates and triggers a cultural change that becomes the key to success in the same long-term lean programs. All this is possible if you are able to evolve the knowledge of approaches and methodology to get an awareness of how it should change the people’s management process ”
“To create excellence-oriented culture, we need profound innovation in business culture by managers. This innovation must start from a deep conviction: if people working in the company feel that their ideas are taken seriously, then
they can do great things. Errors should also be taken as a source of learning while the problems are to be considered the treasures from which to learn to improve. Human resources can produce grandiose ideas when trust is given to them when a method is passed when they can work in groups.
Building a flow of value that generates quality people, therefore, guarantees every phase of the people’s management path designed to increase their value, in the sense that value can not be increased only through training but also through daily activity that is a constant source of enrichment and development. Problem solving is the glue that binds these two value streams. Activating, mobilizing and engaging people in problem solving is the central point in the book’s thesis, topical issues that are above all a formidable growth for leaders. ” So ended the meeting Mariacristina Galgano, summarizing the value of Toyota System.
The experience of Liker and Hoseus in this book shows the most important aspect of Excellence-oriented programs and the key role played by people and a quality-led leadership.
In addition to techniques and strategies, Toyota Production System teaches us the culture of quality and excellence. Toyota Culture shows the care that this extraordinary company puts on creating high quality people and constantly increasing value. This is one of the lesser-known aspects of the Toyota Production System, but at the same time the key to achieving lasting results over time.
The book describes all the stages of staff management, from the selection to the development of people. But it also describes the daily management mechanisms through which the company engages people, involves and instills in them the ‘obsession’ for quality and the pursuit of continuous improvement.
When Toyota opened its first establishments in the United States, it was necessary to create a culture oriented to excellence, in a profoundly different Japanese context. This forced the company to make ‘explicit’ some practices related to the management of people, which until then had remained silent.
Toyota successfully responded to this challenge by preserving its key values, adapting them intelligently to the very different situation of the US labor market. Through the description of this experience, the book manages to uncover little-known aspects of one of the most studied management systems in the world.
The two authors introduce in this book the innovative concept of the People Value Stream Map, which Toyota Production System experts recall in the mind of the well-known Product Value Stream Map. People Value Stream Map’s goal is to consistently increase the value of people from their entry into the company throughout their business life. As with the construction of a product, there can be no waste in the People Value Stream Map.
With this key, the book has the tremendous value of revisiting every stage of the process of managing people and telling how these processes are cared for in Toyota to generate motivated and quality people.
