Lean Manufacturing Quotes

• 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

  353 Copy quote

• Improvement usually means doing something that we have never done before.

  Shigeo Shingo

  Mean, Done, Improvement

  177 Copy quote

• Automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.

  Bill Gates

  Technology, Automation, Efficiency

  Bill Gates, Nathan Myhrvold, Peter Rinearson (1996). “The Road Ahead”, Wheeler Pub Incorporated

  71 Copy quote

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• 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

• Scrap doesn't come for free, we pay someone to make it.

  W. Edwards Deming

  Pay, Scrap

  13 Copy quote

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

  Taiichi Ohno

  Business, Cost

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

  212 Copy quote

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• A bad system will beat a good person every time.

  W. Edwards Deming

  Good People, Systems Thinking, Good Person

  54 Copy quote

• Time waste differs from material waste in that there can be no salvage. The easiest of all wastes and the hardest to correct is the waste of time, because wasted time does not litter the floor like wasted material.

  Henry Ford

  Doe, Waste, Wasting Time

  Henry Ford (2006). “The Great To-Day and Greater Future”, p.142, Cosimo, Inc.

  8 Copy quote

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• The most dangerous kind of waste is the waste we do not recognize.

  Shigeo Shingo

  Systems And Processes, Kaizen, Waste

  134 Copy quote

• Time waste differs from material waste in that there can be no salvage.

  Henry Ford

  Waste, Wasting Time, Materials

  Henry Ford (2006). “The Great To-Day and Greater Future”, p.142, Cosimo, Inc.

  10 Copy quote

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• The most effective way to improve productivity is to eliminate work.

  William E. Conway, Jr.

  Way, Productivity

  4 Copy quote

• There are many experts on how things have been done up to now. If you think something could use a little improvement, you are the expert.

  Robert Breault

  Thinking, Experts, Use

  6 Copy quote

• We have to grasp not only the Know-How but also 'Know Why', if we want to master the Toyota Production System.

  Shigeo Shingo

  Want, Masters, Toyota

  100 Copy quote

• You can't do kaizen just once or twice and expect immediate results. You have to be in it for the long haul.

  Masaaki Imai

  Long, Kaizen, Results

  55 Copy quote

• The world we have created is a product of our thinking.

  Albert Einstein

  Motivational, Thinking, World

  64 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

• Kaizen means ongoing improvement involving everybody, without spending much money.

  Masaaki Imai

  Mean, Kaizen, Ongoing

  69 Copy quote

• There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.

  Peter Drucker

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  124 Copy quote

• Sustainability at Nike means being laser-focused on evolving our business model to deliver profitable growth while leveraging the efficiencies of lean manufacturing, minimizing our environmental impact and using the tools available to us to bring about positive change across our entire supply chain.

  Mark Parker

  Nike, Mean, Impact

  54 Copy quote

• If you do not know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Inspiring, Success, Baseball

  143 Copy quote

• Why not make the work easier and more interesting so that people do not have to sweat?  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’

  Eliyahu M. Goldratt

  Creativity, Thinking, Sweat

  62 Copy quote

• A relentless barrage of 'why’s' is the best way to prepare your mind to pierce the clouded veil of thinking caused by the status quo.  Use it often.

  Shigeo Shingo

  Thinking, Mind, Use

  156 Copy quote

• I think it is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises, but only performance is reality

  Harold Geneen

  Leadership, Business, Reality

  26 Copy quote

• The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.

  Bill Gates

  Business, Technology, Marketing

  Bill Gates, Nathan Myhrvold, Peter Rinearson (1996). “The Road Ahead”, Wheeler Pub Incorporated

  114 Copy quote

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

  Taiichi Ohno

  Lines, Waste, Reducing

  134 Copy quote