…What I personally learned from people like Isao Kato and Art Smalley during my Toyota years was that a company’s success largely can be attributed to total employee involvement in daily Kaizen. This difference is critical when compared to traditional Western manufacturing companies. Team members in Toyota working with improvement tools, involvement opportunities, and a structured process constantly delivered amazing results that surpassed my expectations. This book represents a model for understanding Kaizen inside Toyota and the skills required to analyze basic processes and drive improvement.—Russ Scaffede, former V.P. of manufacturing, Toyota Motor Manufacturing