The mentor approach has traditionally been Toyota's method for passing its improvement kata on to all organization members. Toyota utilized this approach when it opened its first manufacturing facility in North America, the NUMMI plant in Freemont California-a 50-50 joint venture with General Motors that commenced production in 1984. Approximately 400 coordinators were sent from Japan to the California site. These were mentors who essentially took Toyota's new American hires by the hand and taught them Toyota's improvement kata through the mentor learn-by- doing approach presented in this chapter, A similar number of coordinators were later sent to Kentucky, when Toyota established its second North American production site there