TO THE EDITOR:
I read Lindsay Chappell's "Lockdown or not, you still need to take a look" (May 18) with much interest.
The content of the column, including the closing paragraph, is excellent advice for everyone to put into action and continually follow. This is even more crucial given the challenging organizational and operational issues resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.
Kaizen, muda and jidoka are key principles to implement and follow for the betterment of any organization, but in my 32 years of worldwide experience with Toyota and Lexus, from technical training instructor in our Kansas City region to senior vice president of Toyota Motor Asia Pacific Ltd. in Singapore, genchi genbutsu (go look, go see for yourself) is mostly where the real situation learning takes place because this is the action necessary to see and examine the level of success from the other three principles.
Genchi genbutsu lets one see the situation firsthand and work with others for prompt issue/problem identification and resolution and overall continually improved performance.
As the headline so very correctly stated, "you still need to take a look." Works every time!
DICK CHITTY, Ocala, Fla., The writer is a retired senior vice president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc.
