Submitted for
Course Number MGT 613
Operations Management
Dr. Jimmie Flores
By:
Gloria Kobus
October 2, 2014
The Toyota Way The Toyota Way is a set of principles and behaviors that were developed by the Toyota Motor Corporation and underline its managerial approach and production system. Jeffrey Liker describes 14 management principles perfected by Toyota and gives the reader a roadmap on how to use in any organization. However, the Toyota way isn’t a straight-forward path to perfection or quality. The Toyota way can’t be implemented without first knowing exactly what you want to do and a clear direction of how you want to get there. Organizations that want to emulate the Toyota way first must understand assets available in their organization and be fully committed to the steps in order to be successful. The Toyota mind set is a desire to be the best in every step of the process not only the process of building cars, but at the process of life. Toyota believes not only in making things internally better, but in making those things around them better along the way.
14 Principals of the Toyota Way The quest to make things better begins with Toyota developing principals that guide their everyday business practices. Toyota not only invests in themselves but recognizes that a key to their success is the workers. Weaved throughout their principals is the baseline principal of the human resource. In addition, the principals base all operations and activities on fostering the long-term future of the company, not on achieving short-term profits or immediate stock value. Toyota has a reputation of investing heavily in employees, their careers, their training and their future steaming back to the origins of the company. The principals standardize processes that empower workers to perform, as trusted partners, so they continuously perfect all of the company’s production and work processes. This will increase efficiency and reduce waste. In addition, the Toyota Way ensures that all managers and supervisors thoroughly understand their responsibilities and can capably instruct their subordinates. Being a good teacher is the most important job requirement for individuals in positions of authority. The principals help the process by establishing teams of highly trained employees who can work together seamlessly and help the teams to understand that suppliers represent a vital link in the production chain. Toyota does not stop improving processes within its own organization but extends the process to the independent contractors, helping them develop and train their employees so they can support your overall production mission. Toyota believes that organization is the keep to success and in planning and organizing everything learning and improving are constant processes for workers, supervisors and executives.
Lean Leadership Most Lean tools are focused on the reduction of waste; however Toyota also focuses on two other areas which include overburdening of people and machines. Examples include principle two (reducing wastes by implementing flow) is much easier when principle four (the production schedule is balanced) because any variations from production demand is removed. An unbalanced production flow can lead to overburdening machines or people, which in turn may lead to downtimes and/or preventing staff from improving processes. The foundation for continuous improvement according to Liker is principle six (working with standards), when processes are documented in detail all employees will do tasks the same way, it is easy to identify and improve any part of the processes. All incremental improvements are captured in the standard operation procedure to make sure the improvement is documented and communicated throughout the operators.
Implementation for other industries Implementing the Toyota way includes a commitment to the human resources, which is the
