Hi,

To me Robin's point is a good reminder to us all. Toyota (eg, Taiichi
Ohno) never said they were perfect and don't want to be seen that way.
We should not project our wish for perfection onto them (as
admittedly, I am wont to do).

Some song lyrics:
Quote
I was burned out from exhaustion, buried in the hail
Poisoned in the bushes and blown out on the trail
Hunted like a crocodile ravaged in the corn
"Come in" she said
"I'll give you shelter from the storm".
Unquote

We want shelter from the storm. We want a silver bullet. We want to
believe that Toyota is perfect. Reality is a bit more complicated.

This all does not mean we can't still learn from Toyota and from a
whole lot of others doing lean. But to make the childish assumption
that "if Toyota does it, it must be right", is, well, child's play.

When we (who will also never be perfect) get better than they are,
then they may deify us. Which will give us a good chuckle, make us
sad, but maybe give us a bit of pride. And a bit of motivation to try
to continue to become yet better.

Regards, Joe


PS. Is it fair to hold Toyota accountable for the mental health of
every single one of its employees? Still, it may be true that this
death is not just one incident, and that Toyota may be (partially)
culpable.


--- In leandevelopment@yahoogroups.com, "Robin Dymond"
<robin.dymond@...> wrote:
>
> Not all is so rosy at Toyota.
>
> TOKYO - A Japanese labor bureau has ruled that one of Toyota's top car
> engineers died from working too many hours, the latest in a string
of such
> findings... had been under severe pressure as the lead engineer in
> developing a hybrid version of Toyota's blockbuster Camry line...
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080709/ap_on_bi_ge/japan_overwork_death
>