Works
- Toyoda Power Loom, with a device that stops the loom when the weft breaks, 1896
In Thinking Tools
Known for
The founder of the Toyota group. His looms stopped themselves when a thread broke or ran out, the origin of jidoka, building quality in by halting at the first defect. Toyota and Taiichi Ohno credit him with the habit of asking why five times.
Caveat: No text of his describes the five whys; the first printed account is Ohno's Toyota Production System (1978), and Toyota's own history dates the power loom's completion to 1897.