Four Types of Problems / Managing to Learn Set

About John Shook

John Shook learned about lean management while working for Toyota for 11 years in Japan and the U.S., helping it transfer production, engineering, and management systems from Japan to NUMMI and other operations around the world. While at Toyota’s headquarters, he became the company’s first American kacho (manager) in Japan.…

About Art Smalley

Art is the author of the LEI workbook Creating Level Pull: a lean production-system improvement guide for production control, operations, and engineering professionals, which received a 2005 Shingo Research Award. He was inducted into the Shingo Prize Academy in 2006. Art learned about lean manufacturing while living, studying, and working in Japan for 10 years as one of the first foreign nationals to work for Toyota. He spent the majority of his Toyota career helping the company transfer its production, engineering, and management systems to facilities around the world. After leaving Toyota, Art became director of lean production operations at Donnelly Corp., (now part of Magna Inc.), a tier one automotive supplier with more than 15 plants in North America and Europe. Art subsequently joined McKinsey & Company, where he was the firm’s leading expert in lean manufacturing. He currently aids companies implementing lean through Art of Lean.