The Toyota Way. Jeffrey K. Liker. Now that Agile is on everybody’s tongues and wishlists, it’s time to go back to where it all began.The Toyota Way is an exciting journey into the fundamentals of TPS (Toyota Production System), i.e. the 14 principles defining the Lean System. Reynaldo Perdomo, a seasoned expert in Lean Manufacturing, recommended this reading to me years ago and it was, and still is, a total revelation.
Common sense rules Lean. And it also rules Agile, even if some insist in making it difficult and tangled (what’s the point in turning Agile into “un-agile”?). In this book, the most difficult thing is remembering the names of the 14 principles in Japanese. For the rest, it’s so brilliantly logical that, once we turn the final page, we will wonder why we aren’t working according to these principles and what are we waiting for to start working like this. A must-read if you are thinking about redesigning leaner organisational architectures.
