Mike Rother
Researcher, Engineer, Teacher, Author
Summary of Qualifications
Mike Rother is an engineer, a researcher, teacher and speaker on the subjects of management, leadership, improvement, adaptiveness, and change in human organizations. He has been a member of the Industrial Technology Institute (Ann Arbor), the University of Michigan College of Engineering, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (Stuttgart), and the Technical University Dortmund.
Mike Rother has been in hundreds of companies and is well-known for his book Toyota Kata, which explains a means for developing, activating and mobilizing human potential in a way that makes scientific working a daily habit. His previous book, Learning to See, is known around the world as the standard explanation and user guide for Value Stream Mapping.This program teaches attendees how to apply groundbreaking practices researched and published by Mike Rother.
Biography
Mike is co-author of two groundbreaking LEI workbooks, Learning to See: value-stream mapping to add value and eliminate muda, which received a Shingo Research Award in 1999 and Creating Continuous Flow: an action guide for managers, engineers and production associates, which received a Shingo Award in 2003 and 2011. He co-developed the accompanying Training to See kit that teaches facilitators how to run value-stream mapping workshops. His latest book is Toyota Kata (McGraw-Hill). Mike is an engineer, a researcher, teacher, consultant, and speaker on the subjects of management, leadership, improvement, adaptiveness, and change in human organizations. His affiliations have included the Industrial Technology Institute (Ann Arbor), the University of Michigan College of Engineering, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (Stuttgart), and the Technical University Dortmund. Mike began his career in the manufacturing division of Thyssen AG in Germany. He lives in Ann Arbor, MI, and Cologne, Germany.
Articles by Mike Rother
- Why Lean Programs Fail – January 25, 2011, by Jeffrey Liker and Mike Rother. Jeffrey Liker and Mike Rother, two award-winning authors and lean practitioners, discuss what has been missing from lean transformations.
- What Are We Learning Since We Started Learning to See? – April 2, 2006, by Mike Rother. LEI author Mike Rother offers lessons from the field about applying value-stream mapping.
- Value-Stream Mapping in a Make-to-Order Environment – September 9, 2005, by Mike Rother. Tips from LEI author Mike Rother on applying value-stream mapping and continuous flow in high-variety, custom manufacturing environments.
Books by Mike Rother
by Mike Rother and John Shook
Value-stream maps are the blueprints for lean transformations and Learning to See is an easy-to-read, step-by-step instruction manual that teaches this valuable tool to anyone, regardless of his or her background.
This game-changing book puts you behind the curtain at Toyota, providing new insight into the legendary automaker’s management practices and offering practical guidance for leading and developing people in a way that makes the best use of their brainpower. Drawing on six years of research into Toyota’s employee-management routines, Toyota Kata examines and elucidates, for the first time, the company’s organizational routines—called kata—that power its success with continuous improvement and adaptation.