Toyota Kata – from “Lean Implementation” to “a lasting Lean Transformation”

Many companies are battling to be more competitive and striving to improve their processes by the means of lean principles and tools. However, the traditional approach of "projects" or "episodic" improvements is not enough to sustain and, more importantly, to move beyond the current pattern and then truly create a lean transformation and culture.

AmCham China Tianjin, in cooperation with the German Chamber and European Chamber, would like to invite you to an informative breakfast seminar, in which our speaker Dario Spinola will explain how 'Toyota Kata" can lead to lean improvement and lasting lean transformation. Toyota Kata is a result of research in Toyota managerial methods conducted by Mike Rother. He clearly describes his findings on the book "Toyota Kata", demonstrating the skills of "improvement kata" and "coaching kata" we need to learn in order to improve and stay adaptive for the necessary changes.

Improvement kata and coaching kata are a systematic approach primarily intended to develop people's capability for improvement and leadership by the means of consistent daily practices. Kata means a way of doing, pattern or routine that over repeated practice becomes our second nature. Coaching kata is the way to develop the leaders as internal coaches to teach the improvement kata every day by the structured coaching cycles, so that the expansion of the kata "method" can be generated and a new culture reached in the whole company. The daily practices of improvement kata and coaching kata are done to develop people's skills and solidly achieve improvements in the processes, either at shop floor (manufacturing), service or management.