"What We Learned from Taiichi Ohno: A Lecture by Michikazu Tanaka, Former Senior Managing Director of Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd."(in Japanese)

This paper reports a speech by Michikazu Tanaka, former Senior Managing Director in charge of Production at Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd., about Taiichi Ohno, the creator of so called Toyota Production System (T. P. S.). Tanaka explains how Ohno, Executive Vice President of Toyota then, led the transformation process of Daihatsu's production systems during the 1970s, with various concrete examples and anecdotes. Tanaka, a production manager then, kept a very close contacts with Ohno throughout this period, received direct instructions from him, and soon became a main promoter of T. P. S. himself. Tanaka also became an admirer of Ohno personally, although from a neutral point of view. The topics discussed widely cover "trials first" spirit, kaizen, inventory reduction, automation, and so on. Tanaka's lecture dispels some stereotyped images that Ohno was a relentlessly rational system builder. Instead, what his description of Ohno's day-to-day discourse vividly reveals is the human side of Taiichi Ohno as people-oriented leader, as well as effective teacher, for endless manufacturing improvements.