Taiichi Ohno Quotes

#1. I'm proud to be Japanese and I wanted my country to succeed. I believed my system was a way that could help us become a modern industrial nation. That is why I had no problem with sharing it with other Japanese companies, even my biggest competitors.

Taiichi Ohno

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

Taiichi Ohno

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

Taiichi Ohno

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

Taiichi Ohno

#5. 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

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

Taiichi Ohno

#7. Also, bad quality causes big disruptions in my river system.

Taiichi Ohno

#8. No one has more trouble than the person who claims to have no trouble

Taiichi Ohno

#9. Without standards, there can be no improvement.

Taiichi Ohno

#10. 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

#11. Costs do not exist to be calculated. Costs exist to be reduced.

Taiichi Ohno

#12. 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

#13. 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

#14. Ask 'why' five times about every matter.

Taiichi Ohno

#15. 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

#16. Having no problems is the biggest problem of all.

Taiichi Ohno

#17. 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

#18. 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

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

Taiichi Ohno

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

Taiichi Ohno

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

Taiichi Ohno