Surely product recalls (particularly to prevent potential customer fatalities) are the ultimate failure for an organisation priding itself on its application of Lean manufacturing principles?

In our latest Newsletter Mike Thomas observes that the whole Lean consulting industry in Europe and the US is based on the claims made for Toyota’s management principles.

Mike opines 'what could be less Lean, or more redolent of waste or “muda”, than the recall of thousands of your cars? With Toyota now seemingly in global meltdown because of a series of failures in manufacturing quality the Lean promise might seem a little tarnished'.

Read our February 2010 newsletter 128kb