The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership: Achieving and Sustaining Excellence through Leadership Development

The missing link to long-term Lean success! Despite the fact that companies worldwide have adopted Lean production, none has sustained the same levels of excellence as Toyota. Why? Leadership. In The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership, Jeffrey Liker and Gary L. Convis, a former executive V.P. and managing officer of Toyota, help executives and senior managers get employees to refocus their efforts--from simply performing their singular function to continuously improving in collaboration across the organization. Case studies from Toyota clearly illustrate the methods that create powerful, effective Lean leadership. Jeffrey Liker, author of the popular Toyota Way books, is the acknowledged expert on Toyota processes. He is professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan. After his executive leadership at Toyota, Gary L. Convis became the CEO of Dana Holding Corporation, a $6.1 billion supplier to the global automotive, commercial vehicle, and off-highway markets, and helped lead it to a successful turnaround from bankruptcy.

Dr. Jeffrey K. Liker is Professor Emeritus of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan and president of Liker Lean Advisors, LLC. He is author of the international best-seller, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer, McGraw Hill, 2004 (26 languages, over 950,000 copies sold), and twelve other books about Toyota and lean management.  His latest book is The Toyota Way to Service Excellence.  He is a frequent keynote speaker and teacher of master classes on lean leadership and service excellence.   
 
Gary L. Convis served as CEO of Dana Holding Company from April 2008 to January 2009, Vice Chairman in 2009 and Senior Advisor to the CEO in 2010. Prior to this Mr. Convis spent more than four decades at Toyota, General Motors Corporation, and Ford Motor Company.  He became the first American president of Toyota's largest plant outside Japan, Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky (TMMK), in 2001.  He was named chairman of TMMK in 2006 and retired in 2007.  Prior to this, in 2003, he was the first American manufacturing executive appointed by Toyota Motor Corporation to be a managing officer, as well as Executive Vice President of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.  Prior to serving in these roles, Mr. Convis spent 16 years at New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc., a joint venture between GM and Toyota.  Previously, he spent more than 20 years in various roles with GM and Ford Motor Company.