Understanding the roots of Lean is vital in order to implement it. You can also view the presentation video at https://youtu.be/bfa89wthtNI The presentation is based on my blog post The Confucian roots of Lean at http://www.kilkku.com/blog/2014/08/the-confucian-roots-of-lean/

1. The Confucian roots of Lean

2. Toyota is in the middle of the Confucian influence area

3. Taiichi Ohno and Confucianism

4. Confucianism
• The core Confucian belief is that human beings are:
• Teachable
• Improvable
• Perfectible
• Through personal and communal endeavor especially including self-cultivation and
self-creation

5. What does this mean for Lean?
• Perfection of the product (maximize customer value)
• Perfection of the process (eliminate waste)
• Perfection of the individual (respect people)

6. Can it work in theWest?
The idea of perfection is no stranger toWestern
thought, but is it out of favor in theWest?
Locke
Kant
Mill

7. Conclusions
• Most Lean implementations in the West have failed
• Most Lean implementations in the West have been attempts to implement
it as a toolkit, not as a management philosophy
• Understanding the roots of Lean helps in implementing it correctly