Toyota Book - Quest for The Dawn

There are several autobiographies available by the likes of Eiji Toyoda and others who were executives in both mfg and sales. I have about a half dozen on my book shelf at home and find them very useful in understanding the philosophy behind Lean concepts such as JIT, Jidoka for example. They are very insightful, getting into the minds of people like Kiichiro Toyoda. If you can find it, and don’t mind choking on the cost of a rare, softcover book, look up “The Quest for the Dawn.” It is a story about Kiichiro, his father Sachiro and subsequent Toyoda family leaders as they struggle to break into the auto market.

There is some discussion about 100 year plans on NWLEAN.net right now and how the use of such plans is a major advantage for Toyota.

I’m not 100% sure about this, but I don’t recall any mention of a century plan in any of the books as a source of reference regarding 100 year planning. But the reason I’m not sure about this is because the book reads like these people are thinking long, long term. So, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that they do, in fact, have a formal 100 year plan. When you start talking about “respect for humanity” and literally believe in that, you start to do some pretty unconventional things.