Taiichi Ohno’s principles are changing the world

If Moses had descended from Mount Fuji instead of Sinai, he might’ve brought with him not stone tablets but a clipboard and a stopwatch. That’s because in the gospel of operational excellence, one prophet stands out with a wrench in one hand and an eagle eye for quality issues and low productivity in the other.

Re-introducing Taiichi Ohno (1912-1990), the architect of the Toyota Production System (TPS). He didn’t just build better cars – he built a mindset on how to eliminate waste. TPS summarizes Ohno’s core philosophies, distilled over the years by Lean practitioners and Kaizen consultants.

That includes my former boss, Masaaki Imai (1930-2023), founder of Kaizen Institute, who helped distill Ohno’s Ten Precepts – a powerful cocktail of brutal, simple solutions, shop floor common-sense and just enough Japanese mysticism to make everyone become Japan visitors.

Ten commandments

Actually, there are more than 10. So, let’s simplify and skip the term “precepts” to avoid making it part of a dusty manual. Instead, let’s call them what they truly are – commandments to make them bold, tinged with a sense of reverence. By framing it that way, we elevate their importance from mere suggestions.

They’re guiding principles to be lived by everyone, not necessarily limited to the manufacturing sector. So, without further ado, here are the commandments – timeless and tested by believers:

1. You are a cost. You’re an expense report with a pulse. At the very least, pay for yourself by producing enormous value that the company forgets how much your coffee habit costs. If you’re not creating value for the customer, you’re the equivalent of decorative wall paintings. They’re nice to have, but the first to go when budgets get tight.

2. Don’t blame people. Instead, fire the system, not the person. Imagine Ohno walking inside a factory, spotting a problem, and saying, “Hmm, that procedure is wrong” – not “Let’s throw Bob under the bus.” That’s because “a bad system can beat a good manager all the time.”

3. Kaizen is making things better, not perfect. If your improvement plan takes more than a year to do, involves five consultants and requires constant management follow-ups, you’ve already lost. Kaizen prefers daily one percent improvement achieved by each of 100 workers over a 100 percent improvement made by a manager in a year.

4. The workplace is a teacher. You can find answers only at the Gemba (shop floor or back room). It’s the “actual place” where we create value and remove non-value-adding things. Therefore, get off online meetings and go to where the action is. You’d be amazed how many problems can be solved with that approach.

5. Do anything immediately. Don’t delay. Analysis by paralysis is Jurassic. Do it fast – even if it means screwing up. Don’t wait for your KPI dashboard to load fully. Try doing something. Start with low-hanging fruit. Meetings are overrated. If needed, limit it to 15 minutes maximum.

6. Once you start, continue. Continuous improvement isn’t a weekend hobby. You can’t flirt with it on Monday and ghost it by Wednesday. It’s a long-term solution, not a one-night stand. Once you start fixing something, start by reducing ten signatories to two, if you’re buying a new stapler.

7. Explain it to a five-year-old. It doesn’t mean you should hire toddlers for your operations team, though some startups are doing it. Ohno meant: make things simple. If your plan requires a PhD in process theology to understand, it won’t work. Keep it simple so your Six Sigma believers could get it.

8. Waste is hidden. Make them visible. It’s therapeutic. Stop sweeping problems under the rug. Post key facts and figures. Draw giant red circles around them if you must. Enjoy the allure of andons – colorful lights that flash when something goes wrong. Imagine if HR could do it when hiring people.

9. Valueless motions are equal to shortening one’s life. It’s a poetic reminder. Imagine all those times when you walk across the office just to find a working printer or dig through the cabinets for that missing tool. Those are minutes of your life you’ll never get back. You may not realize it, but Ohno said they’re slowly killing you.

10. Re-improve what was improved. Just when you thought you’d done some improvements. No, you’re not done. Imagine Ohno popping out of the shadows with a checklist and saying, “Again.” Improvement is infinite. Don’t celebrate too early. Critical thinkers never sleep.

They still matter

For context, understand that Ohno’s main goal wasn’t writing business books. He was trying to help Toyota survive in post-war Japan. They needed resources like a drowning man needing air. Ohno saw the Ten Commandments slicing through corporate excesses like a katana cutting soft tofu.

These concepts aren’t for manufacturing. Whether you’re running a factory, a fintech startup or your home office while muting toddlers on Zoom, the message is clear: simplicity wins, waste kills and improvement never stops.

So next time you’re tempted, if not forced to launch a “Kaizen Task Force” with matching shirts and a 3-day planning retreat, pause. Channel your inner Ohno. Walk to the Gemba. Fix one thing. Make it visible. Then do it again tomorrow. Just remember: you are a cost – so make it worthwhile.

Rey Elbo is a quality and productivity improvement enthusiast. Email your story to [email protected] or DM them on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, or https://reyelbo.com. Anonymity is guaranteed even if you prefer to buy Chinese cars.