Mikio Kitano Keynote: TPS as One-by-One Confirmation (1997)

The text of a keynote address by Mikio Kitano, then President of Toyota Motor Manufacturing, at the University of Kentucky Lean Manufacturing Conference in May 1997. Kitano presents TPS as common sense expressed through one-by-one confirmation and doing it right the first time, illustrated with Kiichiro Toyoda’s 1930s engine and truck experience. He maps the three Ms to practice: avoiding muri through standardized work, avoiding mura through just-in-time, and discovering muda as management’s responsibility.