Standards should not be forced down from above but rather set by the production workers themselves.
Interpretation
Production workers should have a say in setting their own standards for work.
This quote emphasizes the importance of empowering production workers to define the standards and practices within their own work environment. Taiichi Ohno highlights that those who are directly involved in the production process possess the best insights and understanding of their work, leading to more effective and practical standards when they are allowed to contribute to the decision-making process.
In practice
In a factory setting, when discussing how to improve processes, someone might quote this to highlight the importance of worker input.
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.
Where there is no Standard there can be no Kaizen
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.
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.
The American President resembles the commander of a ship at sea. He must have a helm to grasp, a course to steer, a port to seek.
Women are still not reaching the most senior levels of corporations. This is not the shortcoming of women. We're talented and smart.
If you believe in a security strategy - a strategy of more friends and fewer enemies, a strategy of greater cooperation and a strategy of keeping America better at home as we grow more diverse - we have to build the minds and hearts to build this kind of world.
It was not a religion that attacked us that September day. It was al-Qaeda. We will not sacrifice the liberties we cherish or hunker down behind walls of suspicion and mistrust.
To be an excellent leader, you have to be a superb follower.
Employee loyalty begins with employer loyalty. Your employees should know that if they do the job they were hired to do with a reasonable amount of competence and efficiency, you will support them.
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