Mike Rother - The Toyota Kata Practice Guide

Copyright 2018 by Mike Rother. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a data base or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Since the publication of Toyota Kata in 2009 Ive heard from and learned from hundreds of persons in organizations around the world who are experimenting with and applying the findings described in that book. I thank them as a group!

I also want to highlight and thank the wonderful colleagues and friends listed on the next page, with whom Ive been working and learning. Its been a pleasure to test ideas and share what we learn through speaking, slideshares, videos, articles, workshops, and posting online the evolving material that finally became this book. Thank you for 10 years of fruitful experimenting, dialogue, and challenging one another. This book stands on many shoulders. (I apologize to anyone Ive accidentally overlooked.)

Most authors have an editor, but at McGraw-Hill Ive been fortunate to work with four able editors on the Toyota Kata books and the expanding Toyota Kata topic area. Thank you, Mary Glenn, Knox Huston, Donya Dickerson, and Noah Schwartzberg. Thank you also to Mauna Eichner and Lee Fukui.

A special thank you to my friend and Kata colleague Mark Rosenthal, who generously rolled up his sleeves and gave me lots of editing feedback and support.

Thank you to my wife Liz and our daughters Grace and Olivia, whove lived with a Kata track running in the back of my mind 24/7. They gave me valuable advice on endless texts and artwork, and incorporated more scientific thinking into their own liveswhich is really the main point of practicing the Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata.

This book is dedicated to young people, who are the future.

Thank you to these Kata colleagues:

Jens Albat

Katie Anderson

Pia Anhede

Gerd Aulinger

Jennifer Ayers

Toni Benner

Dan Bergeron

Joakim Bjurstrm

Barb Bouch

Pat Boutier

Bill Boyd

Brandon Brown

Tom Burke

Sam Carlson

Rhonda Carpenter

Beth Carrington

Michael Casten

Bill Costantino

Hank Czarnecki

Joe Dager

Andrea Darabos

Jeremiah Davis and Family

Tracy Defoe

Professor Jochen Deuse

Stphane Dubreuil

Bob Elliot

Professor Lutz Engel

Dan Ezekiel

Norman Faull

Tyler Fife

Eamon Fitzmaurice

Rick Fleming

Hkan Forss

Brad Frank

Jim Franz

Lean Frontiers

Jim Huntzinger

Dwayne Butcher

Amanda Day-Ott

Jaclyn Molewyk

Jeff Fuchs

Professor Kai Furmans

Dennis Gawlik

Dale Gehring

Betty Gratopp

Bruce Hamilton

David Harry

Chris Hayes

Sabine Hempen

Doug Hendren

Joakim Hillberg

Hiroshi Hiromoto

Dave Hogg

Jez Humble

Kathy Iberle

Kimio Inagaki

Tom Ingram

Todd Jacobi

Susan Janus

Marco Kamberg

Britta Kammel

Craig Kennedy

Gene Kim

Carsten Klages

Professor Jim Knight

Jeff Kopenitz

Bill Kraus

Daniela Kudernatsch

Brian Lagas

Eduardo Lander

Professor Sylvain Landry

Diane Landsiedel

Jean-Marc Legentil

Adam Light

Professor Jeffrey Liker

Drew Locher

Michael Lombard

Jim Manley

Dan Markovitz

Dana Markunas

Professor Constantin May

Michele McLaughlin

Steve Medland

Janina Meier

Amy Mervak

Wayne Meyer

Bernd Mittelhuber

Yvonne Muir

Pierre Nadeau

Barry OReilly

Francisco Ocejo

Tyson Ortiz

Gary Perkerwicz

Melissa Perri

Marek Piatkowski

Anna Possio

Giorgio Possio

Tadas Puksta

Mike Radtke

Ram Ramamurthy

David Rau

Ralph Richter

Andreas Ritzenhoff

Oscar Roche

Mark Rosenthal

Mark Rosenthal

Karyn Ross

Meryl Runion

Jason Schulist

Tilo Schwarz

Julie Simmons and NWHPEC

Scott Simmons

Jenny Snow-Boscolo

Dwayne Soisson

Conrad Soltero

Dario Spinola

Skip Steward

Craig Stritar

Teemu Toivonen

Connie Tolman

Jeff Uitenbroek

Emiel van Est

Jennifer VanHorssen

Dan Vermeesch

Karl Wadensten

Whitney Walters

John Willis

Ralph Winkler