The Slowest Fast Company You Know
I like a good story, but sometimes the data itself tells a compelling one:
Post-WW2 the rise of Toyota was one of Japan’s premier success stories.
Check out the numbers:
1. Assembly Hours Per Car in 1989 (Productivity) (Dispelling the Manufacturing Myth: American Factories Can Compete in the Global Marketplace, National Academies (1992))
Toyota (Japan plants): 16.8 hours per vehicle.
General Motors / Ford / Chrysler (US plants): 25.1 hours per vehicle.
European Automakers (VW, Fiat, etc.): 36.2 hours per vehicle.
2. Defect Rates in 1989 (Quality at Speed) (1989 International Motor Vehicle Program (IMVP) World Assembly Plant Survey by MIT)
Toyota: 60.0 defects per 100 vehicles.
US Competitors: 82.1 defects per 100 vehicles.
European Competitors: 97.0 defects per 100 vehicles.
Toyota was making notably more reliable vehicles at an average of 2x the rate of their closest competitors. Quality and speed at the same time - how in the world did they pull off this kind of success?!
Turns out a significant part of their magic formula resided in a practice called the Gemba Walk (Gemba is Japanese for “the real place”).
It began with a Toyota engineer and executive, Taiichi Ohno, the modern architect behind the lean manufacturing system used widely among US manufacturers today. Ohno told his leaders, “Don’t look with your eyes, look with your feet.”
He would then have them leave their office, step out onto the factory floor where the actual production process was unfolding, and then instruct the leader to simple stand and watch.
He’d even draw a circle around their feet so that they clearly understood their job was to stay right there. And not move. For a whole day.
As they watched the production process unfold, Ohno trained his leaders not to look for mistakes or with judgement. Nor look to fix or change anything. Nor look for conclusions.
Not yet, at least. All of those would inevitably arrive after the Gemba Walk.
But for the Walk itself, it was simply about paying attention to how and where and why the actual work is happening as it happens.
Talk about S.L.O.W.
What a waste of a leader’s day?!
And yet, the Gemba Walk was where new hires and longtime leaders alike learned to pay deep attention to processes. This then enabled them to move far more quickly than the competition when it came to discovering new efficiencies, possibilities, and innovations.
Slow Gemba-Walking was the quiet ingredient sitting behind Toyota’s rocket ship-like speed and quality captured in the 1989 data.
Of course, some of you may remember a couple of decades later when millions of Toyotas were recalled worldwide, and it was quite evident their place on top was no more.
It got so bad that their then-President Akio Toyoda had to testify before US Congress in 2010.
Know what he said?
“We pursued growth over the speed at which we were able to develop our people… I am deeply sorry for any accidents that Toyota drivers have experienced." (Prepared Testimony of Akio Toyoda, President, Toyota Motor Corporation Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, February 24, 2010)
They moved faster than they could develop their people.
Sound familiar?
Even in the last two weeks I have spoken with no fewer than five corporate leaders, each of whom has described their organization’s pace as absolutely pressurized, relentless, and crazy. And “no,” they are clear, “there really is no time to do people development. Team development. We gotta keep growing.”
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The 2026 JD Power Vehicle Long-Term Dependability study has Toyota solidly among the more depending vehicles. More, Toyota has been world’s best-selling automotive company for the past six years.
What changed after 2010?
President Akio ordered leaders across the board to spend significantly less time in front of spreadsheets and far more time on the factory floor. Quite overtly, he doubled-down on the Gemba-Walking that had been lost during their globalized expansion in the late 90s and 00s.
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What would it look like to honor some circle time in the coming days? For you? Your team? Your organization?
What might you see - about your organization, your people, yourself - if you simply stood there and watched?
