Hideshi Yokoi

Hideshi Yokoi is one of the world’s premier lean experts. His distinguished career with Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) spans 40 years and was split equally between Japan and the United States. During that time Toyota deployed him to transform its own factories, its supplier factories, and organizations outside of Toyota.

Yokoi’s TPS (Toyota Production System) career began at NUMMI, the famous joint- venture between General Motors and Toyota, where he was responsible for implementing TPS in assembly. The NUMMI transformation has become a case study in transforming organizational culture and improving performance (MIT Sloan article).

Following NUMMI, Yokoi went on to lead both of Toyota’s internal TPS consulting organizations: Operations Management Development Division (OMDD) and Toyota Supplier Support Center. OMDD was formed by Taiichi Ohno to improve Toyota’s own production and management systems. Yokoi worked within the Japan division for two years and led the North America Division for five years. TSSC was formed by Fujio Cho to transform Toyota suppliers when Toyota established assembly operations in the United States. Yokoi served as President of TSSC for three years. During his tenure he transitioned it to a non-profit and expanded its  role beyond manufacturing to transform organizations across a variety of industries from healthcare to government.

His final assignment with Toyota was to revive the stagnating performance of Toyota Motor Kyushu’s Miyata Lexus plant. As plant manager Yokoi led the plant to JD Power Platinum awards in 2016 and 2017 distinguishing it as the best automotive plant in the world. It also received the Deming prize in 2016.

Not only is Mr. Yokoi’s experience deep and wide, he has a unique ability to connect well with people at all levels in the organization, from CEOs to front line staff. This unique ability has been instrumental in helping hundreds of organizations progress rapidly in their lean journey.