About the Authors

Jeffrey K. Liker, Ph.D. is Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan and president of Liker Lean Advisors. He is author of the international best-seller, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer (McGraw-Hill, 2004; 26 languages, about 700,000 copies sold), and six other books about Toyota: with David Meier, The Toyota Way Fieldbook, McGraw-Hill, 2005; with Jim Morgan, The Toyota Product Development System, Productivity Press, 2006; with David Meier, Toyota Talent: Developing Exceptional People the Toyota Way (McGraw-Hill, 2007); and with Michael Hoseus, Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way (McGraw-Hill, 2008).

His two most recent books, published by McGraw-Hill in 2011, are The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement (with detailed case studies of transformation in different industries) and Toyota under Fire: Lessons for Turning Crisis into Opportunity (about how Toyota has adapted and is remaking itself through the recession and recall crisis). His articles and books have won nine Shingo Prizes for Research Excellence, and The Toyota Way also won the 2005 Institute of Industrial Engineers Book of the Year Award and 2007 Sloan Industry Studies Book of the Year.