Charlie Protzman is a consultant and multiple Shingo Prize-winning author with more than 36 years in materials and operations management. I asked him about the history behind the Toyota Production System and its link to Boyd.
Postwar Japan
Charlie goes back to 1946 and General MacArthur’s occupation of Japan. The Civil Communication Section, the CCS, trained Japanese managers. His grandfather, Charles W. Protzman, taught there, alongside Homer Sarasohn. A leadership purge had opened the door to American-style management. Deming and Drucker followed in the 1950s.
From TWI to TPS
We trace the line from Training Within Industry to Toyota. Charlie covers the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle and what transitioning veterans bring to the Toyota Production System. Leaders have to unlearn MBA-style management to lead in TPS.
Boyd and Lean
Charlie has visited the Boyd archives. Boyd studied Toyota, and he had strong views about how people later packaged it as Lean. Charlie also explains implicit guidance and control and brain efficiency.
Toyota’s system and Boyd’s thinking both rest on orientation, built through practice on the floor.
What habit from business school would you need to unlearn to lead the way Toyota does?
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