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Toyota seems to be in the press everyday. One writer or expert after another describes why the American automotive industry just can't compete. This is not another one of those stories. In fact, Americans can and are competing using lean approaches. And there is much more work to do.

In 2004, Jeffrey Liker published the best-selling book The Toyota Way to show us all how and why Toyota is the success that they are at manufacturing and delivering their projects. As good as that book is, The Toyota Way doesn't offer much help on how to adopt a lean strategy for your business. Two years later, Jeffery Liker is back with The Toyota Way Fieldbook, co-authored with David Meier to fill the implementation gap.

The authors describe a do-it-yourself approach loosely based on Toyota's 4Ps:

Philosophy

Adding value to a larger community for now and for ever

Process

High reliability processes that are systematically improved continuously

People and Partners

Employees and suppliers who are continuously learning and contributing to the purpose

Problem-Solving

Succeeding through making improvements large and mostly small everyday

The approach is somewhat hierarchical — start with philosophy then move onto process, etc — but in practice is more iterative.

While I call it a do-it-yourself approach, the book is more like a set of 20 lessons in getting yourself and your organization started down a very long path of transformative change. Liker's and Meier's six chapters on problem-solving are a succinct introduction to establishing a practice of improvement. But if you want big change, you'll have to get others involved. I strongly recommend you read this book with others.