Less than one week after publishing this article, we learned that Eiji Toyoda passed away. Read a tribute to the former chairman of Toyota by Mark Graban here and another by Jon Miller here.

Today marks the 100th birthday of the man who helped pioneer the production and management system that forms the foundation of Lean. To celebrate the accomplishments of Eiji, here’s a tribute to this forward-looking leader, a blog John Shook wrote for Eiji's 95th birthday.