Book Launch 🚀: Connecting the Dots...

I’m super excited to announce the publication of the book co-authored by Harish Jose and Venkatesh Krishnamurthy!

The book is titled “Connecting the Dots… Reflections on The Toyota Production System” and is now available to order online.

If you’d like the Hardcover Book, you can order it here. The Paperback version can be ordered here.

Read on for a quick excerpt from the book that drives home why this book matters now and also watch an exclusive podcast with the authors.

Our heartfelt thanks to Bruce Hamilton, Senior Advisor, GBMP Consulting Group, for writing the Foreword which I’ve proudly shared below.

Every chapter of this book begins with an image with a quote. Yes, it was hard to pick, but here is my favorite:

Table of Contents

• Why This Book Matters Now

• Foreword

• Exclusive Podcast

Why This Book Matters Now

The Toyota Production System (TPS) has influenced industries far beyond automotive manufacturing. It shaped modern thinking about quality, efficiency, and continuous improvement. Yet, decades after its success, many organizations still struggle to understand what makes TPS unique. Too often, the focus falls on visible practices (kanban boards, value stream maps, standardized work etc.) while the deeper principles remain overlooked.

This book takes a different approach. It looks beyond the tools to the thinking that created them. It also explores the origins of these ideas, because understanding where they came from helps us apply them wisely in today’s world. The conditions that shaped TPS such as resource constraints, global uncertainty, and rapid change are not so different from what organizations face now. That is why these ideas remain powerful, provided we understand their intent.

Foreword

As a lifelong student of the Toyota Production System (TPS), I have spent decades — like many others — trying to understand how a small, little-known automaker became the global benchmark for operational excellence. Too often that story is reduced to a checklist of technical breakthroughs — 5S, kanban, takt time, Andon, standardized work — stripped of the human context that gives those tools meaning. Connecting the Dots restores that context, presenting an engaging narrative that is as much about human learning and development as it is about the mind-stretching concepts we associate with TPS.

The authors’ historical framing of the “two houses” — one describing what and how we improve, the other explaining why we improve — connects philosophy to practice in a way that demonstrates a truth long understood inside Toyota, but often overlooked elsewhere: TPS is not the creation of a single genius but the cumulative achievement of generations of thinkers and doers: Taiichi Ohno’s relentless experimentation on the shop floor, the Toyoda family’s entrepreneurial courage, the human-centered motion-study insights of Lillian Gilbreth, the practical knowledge of Shigeo Shingo and Yashihiro Monden, and the pivotal roles played more recently by Fujio Cho and Hajime Ohba in codifying TPS knowledge internally and then sharing it outside of Toyota.

Equally important, this book reminds us that process efficiency must never come at the expense of human development — a principle that feels even more urgent in an age of rapid technological change. People are not merely “resources” to be optimized; they are the creative force behind problem solving and innovation. The authors’ central thesis — that the ultimate purpose of improvement is to reveal and expand human potential — will resonate with anyone who has worked on a production line, led a kaizen event, or struggled to build a culture of continuous improvement.

TPS endures where Lean often falters not because of its tools, but because of its soul. Kaizen is not merely an improvement event. It’s a state of being. Connecting the Dots invites us to look beyond efficiency charts and cost curves to seethe system as a living community of thinkers and learners. Whether you are a seasoned Lean practitioner or a curious newcomer, this book challenges you to elevate your own practice—linking improvement to respect, and respect to the limitless capability of people.

Bruce Hamilton, Senior Advisor
GBMP Consulting Group

Exclusive Podcast

Here is an exclusive podcast with the authors…