Those who implement Ohno’s TPS tools without considering the first step are not taking the very foundation of Ohno’s success into account.
Ohno taught that, in order to change your mindset, you must change your actions first. This is fundamental to the methods developed by Ohno and Yamada. They don’t start by persuading people to change their mindset, as this would take forever. Instead, they start by putting the frontline into action

Taka Fujimoto, the foremost scholar of Toyota in the company's home country, distinguishes between competing through price or product with competing through organizational capability. In his book, Competing to be Really, Really Good, Fujimoto notes that capability building is in itself a process with three layers: routine work capability, routine improvement capability, and evolutionary capability.

The base layer is routine manufacturing capability. That is the capability of producing the same product as competitors at lower cost, at higher quality, and with shorter delivery lead time.

"The second layer of organizational capability is routine improvement capability: the ability to achieve continuing improvements - kaizen - in productivity, quality, delivery lead times, and other facets of deep competitiveness. That capability consists of an organizationally ingrained capacity and predilection for undertaking problem-solving cycles continually, which drives relentless improvement in products and in production processes.

"Sitting atop routine manufacturing capability and routine improvement capability is the third layer: evolutionary capability; in other words, capability-building capability.