Let me stop you before you begin scanning through all your Toyota and Lean books. Entrepreneur Clarence Saunders lived in the early 20th century. No, he didn't build cars. His business was grocery stores. He invented the first self-serve retailing model. Saunders' ideas had a profound impact on the development of modern supermarkets and modern supply chains. Saunders spent most of his life developing completely automated stores, including Piggly Wiggly, Keedoozle, and Foodelectric.

Dr. W. Edwards Deming worked harder and enjoyed his job more than anyone else. At the age of 93, he conducted one of his four-day seminars in Los Angeles two weeks before his death. His inspiring presentations continued to adapt as he learned new ideas. A student from one of his seminars recalled attending one of his classes earlier that year.

Numerous biographies have cited Dr. Deming's speeches and his impact on Japanese management. The Mt. Hakone Conference Center was the site of his most famous management lectures in August 1950.

At 7:30 am, Mr. Matuda awaited the opening of his favorite barber's shop. He was not the only one waiting for the shop to open. When the barber opened the door, there was an actual race to the door. As soon as the door opened, Matsuda sped up and got his foot in before the other guy. He beat him by a split second. After a 30-minute haircut, Matsuda headed back to his company's headquarters, only 3.5 miles away. At 8:15 am, Matsuda was about halfway to his destination when a large explosion flipped his car. Both he and his chauffeur were thrown from the vehicle but somehow managed to survive.

A professor at Stanford University who teaches entrepreneurship recently gave a lecture in the Terman Engineering Center. He asked his students who created Silicon Valley. "The Internet" was the first response. Another group answered that old guy Marc Andreessen. The professor narrowed his question to his engineering students out of frustration. "Oh, you mean Steve Jobs, right?" they replied.

Exceptional leaders combine intuition with probabilities to make the best decisions. Colin Powell formulated a rule called the 40-70 rule. The 40-70 rule requires leaders to make decisions that can be followed up with 40-70% of the required knowledge. Leadership decisions are made based on intuition when leaders reach this level. It has been proven that the best leaders are the ones who make big decisions in a highly effective manner.

Toyota's impact on the American auto industry in less than 30 years cannot be overstated. From 1958 to 1988, Toyota increased its production efficiency by over 1400%, while Ford and GM remained relatively stagnant. In 1955, Toyota produced four vehicles per employee, while Ford and General Motors produced ten vehicles per employee. Toyota reentered the U.S. market with the Corrolla in 1965, following a false start with the Toyopet in 1958. At this point, Toyota was twice as productive as Ford and GM. Toyota surpassed Volkswagen in 1975 as the leading import brand in the United States. At this point, they are producing 50 cars per employee. Meanwhile, Ford and GM continue to produce an average of 10 vehicles per worker. By the time Lexus is launched as Toyota’s first luxury line in 1989, Toyota is makings more than 60 vehicles per employee. Ford and GM are still manufacturing automobiles at a nearly identical rate to 1955.

Toyota sent a delegation to the USA in 1957 to examine sales opportunities there. With the introduction of Toyopet to the United States, the Crown model was introduced. It was also known as the small crown Cadillac. Some export markets called them the Crown, while Japan called them Masterline. Toyopet Crown models were taken to the U.S. by three specialists. Toyota dealers and media representatives were presented with a white and black Crown and Crown Deluxe. In addition to using 50% thicker steel, both cars featured a lot of chrome and luxurious elements like radio, heater, and whitewall tires. It also included touches such as a door-open warning light and spring-loaded passenger-assistance handles. Like in a Ford Model T, the Crown could be started with a hand crank if its battery failed.

The Countess of Lovelace, Augusta Ada Byron, is considered one of the first computer programmers. In her translation, she commented on Charles Babbage's inventions. At the age of 27, she died on November 27, 1852, from complications related to her 1852 birth. Her father was Lord Byron, the great English poet.

Rosie the Riveter is a cultural icon that represents the American women who worked in factories during World War II, many of whom produced munitions and war supplies. These women sometimes took entirely new jobs replacing the male workers who were in the military. The woman in the iconic image is working with her sleeves rolled up, ready to do whatever it takes to help America win.

The U.S. military was trying to determine how best to protect their airplanes from enemy fire during World War II. Still, they didn't want a solution that would compromise flight capabilities. If vital components like engines and fuel tanks were concealed, metal plates covering all aircraft parts would result in malfunctions or even explosions in the air. Wald came up with a solution, and the obvious thing to do would be to figure out where these additional protective layers should be placed on each aircraft so as not to create another performance limitation. Wald figured out a unique answer for this problem by first considering it as a statistical question. He made a model based on the data demonstrating where planes were most likely to be damaged under specific circumstances.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become commonplace in our everyday lives, and Deep Learning AI techniques have enabled computers to beat humans at complex games, drive cars, and even written books. In 1998, when IBM Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov at chess, marking one of the first milestones in AI defeating humans in complex tasks. The ethical debate over AI continues to be a hot topic.

All organizations are complex systems. Baseball is a complex system. Making changes in a complex system requires four areas of consideration in what Dr. Edwards Deming called the System of Profound Knowledge.

One could argue that the birth of PDSA began in the 17th century with the formalized use of the scientific method by Galileo Galilei and Francis Bacon. Although many came before them, Galileo Galilei, the father of modern science, and Francis Bacon, the father of empiricism. He advanced the use and ideas of the scientific method. Galileo established the usage of the scientific method through his experiments with objects in motion. On the other hand, Bacon made contributions in philosophy in the areas of theory of knowledge (epistemology).

Have you ever questioned why women's clothing sizes differ from those of men? In 1947, the Mail Order Association of America (MOAA) commissioned the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), now known as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), to create a new size standard for ladies' bodies.

Near the end of the 18th century, you might say that using statistics to find new planets was all the rage. In 1781 astronomers discovered Uranus by using a relatively simple predictive formula of taking the average distances of the planets from the sun.