On Monday, I visited Toyota with Craig Larman(author of Applying UML and Patterns -- which is my favorate OO book -- and Agile and Iterative Development), and Bass Vodde(A Certified ScrumMaster who recently led a ScrumMaster Course in Tokyo).

In the tour, we walked through Tsutsumi plant and saw mixed-model production lines, Kanban, Andon, Poka-yoke, and people working there. After the tour that evening, we met with Prof. Kurosawa, who used to work in Toyota as a manager, and had good dinner(and Japanese Sake!).

Mary and Tom Poppendieck first revealed in Lean Software Development that software development is different from Manufacturing process but have a lot to learn in the princple level. Now, Craig and Bas are preparing a new book, using the concept, exploring it further, and suggesting priciples of scaling agile product development -- "Scaling Lean & Agile Development: Successful Large, Multisite & Offshore Products"

I expect it to be another big step for the Agile movement.