ANALYSIS OF PRODUCTION PRINCIPLES IN TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION case OM

TPS PROJECT.docx
UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI
NCRD’S

STERLING COLLEGE OF ARTS, COMMERCE & SCIENCE
NERUL, NAVI MUMAI

COLLEGE CODE: 0552

PROJECT REPORT ON
“TOYOTA PRODUCTION SYSTEM – ANALYSIS OF

PRODUCTION PRINCIPLES AND PROCESSES IN
TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION”

SUBMITTED BY
“TUHIL GOSWAMI”

PROJECT GUIDEANCE
PROF. MANASI KILEDAR
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR THE COURSE OF
BACHELOR OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES (B.M.S)
T.Y.B.M.S (SEMESTER V)
ACADEMIC YEAR 2015 - 2016

[1]


DECLARATION

I TUHL GOSWAMI OF NCRD’S STERLING COLLEGE OF ARTS, COMMERCE

& SCIENCE, studying in B.M.S (Semester V) hereby declare that I have complete this
project report on “TOYOTA PRODUCTION SYSTEM – ANALYSIS OF PRODUCTION
PRINCIPLES AND PROCESSES IN TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION”

And has not been submitted to any other University of Institute for the award of any
degree, diploma etc. The information is submitted by me is true and original to the best of my
knowledge.

Date: ____________

______________________

Place: Nerul Navi Mumbai

(TUHIL GOSWAMI)

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am thankful to STERLING INSTITUTE OF ARTS, COMMERCE AND
SCIENCE for giving me an opportunity to work on the project. I am highly
thankful to my esteemed guide PROF MANASI KILEDAR for her support
throughout the completion of this project.

[3]


NCRD’S

STERLING COLLEGE OF ARTS, COMMERCE & SCIENCE
NERUL, NAVI MUMAI

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that Mr Tuhil Goswami of Bachelor of Management
Studies has undertaken and completed the project work titled ““TOYOTA
PRODUCTION SYSTEM – ANALYSIS OF PRODUCTION PRINCIPLES
AND PROCESSES IN TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION ” during the
academic year 2015 – 2016 under the guidance of Prof. MANASI KILEDAR
submitted on ____________ to this college in fulfilment of the curriculum Of
Bachelor of Management Studies University of Mumbai.
This is a bonafide project work and the information presented is true and
original to the best of our knowledge and belief.

PROJECT GUIDE

COURSE CO-ORDINATOR

(____________________)

(_________________________)

PRINCIPAL

EXTERNAL GUIDE

(________________)

(_______________)

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CONTENTS
1. SUMMARY - TOYOTA MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
2. INRODUCTION – LEAN MANUFACTURING

_

3. INTRODUCTION – TOYOTA PRODUCTION SYSTEM
4. HISRORY – TOYOTA PRODUCTION SYSTEM
5. TOYOTA WAY
6. TOYOTA BUILDING BLOCKS


LONG TERM PHILOSOPHY



DEVELOPING PEOPLE



SOLVING ROOT PROBLEMS



ONE PIECE FLOW



PULL SYSTEMS



TOYOTA’S SIX RULES



HEIJUNKA



QUALITY



STANDARDISATION



5S



CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT



LEADERSHIP



MANAGING PEOPLE



VENDOR MANAGEMENT



LEARNING ORGANISATIONE



PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT
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_




WORK CULTURE

7. TPS CONCEPTS


JIDOKA

CONTENTS (CONTD...)



JIT



POKA YOKE



MURA MURI

8. ELIMINATION OF WASTES IN LEAN MANUFACTURING
9. TOYOTA MISSION AND VISION

_

10. ILLUSTRATION OF TOYOTA PRODUCTION SYSTEM
11. HISTORY OF TOYOTA MOTORS

_

12. FACTS ABOUT TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION
13. HISTORY OF KIRLOSKAR GROUP
14. INTRRODUCTION – TOYOTA KIRKLOSKAR MOTORS
15. TOYOTA PRODUCT LINE IN INDIA
16. IMPLEMENTATION OF TOYOTA PRODUCTION SYSTEM
17. SOCIAL CONTRIBUTION

18. TMMK PLANT TOUR
19. TOYOTA AND ENVIRONMENT
20. DISTINGUISHING FEATURES ( REASONS TO BUY)
21. RESEARCH FINDINGS
22. TOYOTA PRODUCTS
23. TOYOTA AWARDS
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24. RECOMMENDATION
25. CONCLUSION
26. BIBLIOGRAPHY

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Toyota’s Management Practices
Toyota's management philosophy has evolved from the company's origins and has been
reflected in the terms "Lean Manufacturing" and Just in Time Production, which it was
instrumental in developing. Toyota's managerial values and business methods are known
collectively as the Toyota Way.

In April 2001, Toyota adopted the "Toyota Way 2001", an expression of values and conduct
guidelines that all Toyota employees should embrace.
Under the two headings of Respect for People and Continuous Improvement, Toyota
summarizes its values and conduct guidelines with the following five principles:
 Challenge
 Kaizen (improvement)
 Genchi genbutsu (go and see)
 Respect

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 Teamwork
According to external observers, the Toyota Way has four components:

 Long-term thinking as a basis for management decisions

 A process for problem-solving

 Adding value to the organization by developing its people

 Recognizing that continuously solving root problems drives organizational learning

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LEAN MANUFACTURING
Lean principles are derived from Japanese Manufacturing Industry.
Lean manufacturing or lean production, often simply "lean", is a systematic method for the
elimination of waste ("Muda") within a manufacturing system. Lean also takes into account
waste created through overburden ("Muri") and waste created through unevenness in
workloads ("Mura"). Working from the perspective of the client who consumes a product or
service, "value" is any action or process that a customer would be willing to pay for.

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Essentially, lean is centred on making obvious what adds value by reducing everything else.
For many, lean is the set of "tools" that assist in the identification and steady elimination of

waste (muda). As waste is eliminated quality improves while production time and cost are
reduced. A non exhaustive list of such tools would include: SMED, value stream
mapping, Five

S, Kanban (pull

systems), poka-yoke (error-proofing), total

productive

maintenance, elimination of time batching, mixed model processing, rank order clustering,
single point scheduling, redesigning working cells, multi-process handling and control
charts (for checking mura).
Lean manufacturing is a management philosophy derived mostly from the Toyota Production
System (TPS) (hence the term Toyotism is also prevalent) and identified as "lean" only in the
1990s. TPS is renowned for its focus on reduction of the original Toyota seven wastes to
improve overall customer value, but there are varying perspectives on how this is best
achieved. The steady growth of Toyota, from a small company to the world's largest
automaker, has focused attention on how it has achieved this success.
There is a second approach to lean manufacturing, which is promoted by Toyota, called The
Toyota Way, in which the focus is upon improving the "flow" or smoothness of work, thereby
steadily eliminating mura ("unevenness") through the system and not upon 'waste reduction'
per se. Techniques to improve flow include production levelling, "pull" production (by means
of kanban) and the Heijunka box. This is a fundamentally different approach from most
improvement methodologies, and requires considerably more persistence than basic
application of the tools, which may partially account for its lack of popularity.

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TOYOTA PRODUCTION SYSTEM

The Toyota Production System (TPS) is an integrated socio-technical system, developed
by Toyota,that comprises its management philosophy and practices. The TPS organizes
manufacturing and logistics for the automobile manufacturer, including interaction with
suppliers and customers. The system is a major precursor of the more generic "lean
manufacturing." Ohno, and Eiji Toyoda developed the system between 1948 and 1975.
Originally called "just-in-time production," it builds on the approach created by the founder
of Toyota, Sakichi Toyoda, his son Kiichiro Toyoda, and the engineer Taiichi Ohno.

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A Brief History of Toyota Production System
Toyota developed the Toyota Production System after World War II. While Ford and GM
used mass production, economies of scale, and big equipment to produce as many parts as
possible, as cheaply as possible, Toyota's market in post-war Japan was small. Toyota also
had to make a variety of vehicles on the same assembly line to satisfy its customers. By
making lead times short and focusing on keeping production lines flexible, Toyota realized it
could actually get higher quality, better customer responsiveness, better productivity, and
better utilization of equipment and space.
A basic premise of mass production is that machine downtime is obvious waste. A machine
shut down for repair is not making parts that could make money. But TPS has challenged this
notion.
Often the best thing you can do is to idle a machine and stop producing parts. Over
production, is a fundamental waste in TPS.
Often it is best to build up an inventory of finished goods in order to level out the production
schedule, rather than produce according to the actual fluctuating demand of customer orders.
Levelling out the schedule (heijunka) is a foundation for flow and pull systems and for
minimizing inventory in the supply chain. Levelling production smoothes out the volume and

mix of items produced so there is little variation in production from day to days.
Often it is best to selectively add and substitute overhead for direct labour. When waste is
stripped away from value-adding workers, high-quality support has to be provided for them.
It may not be a top priority to keep your workers busy making parts as fast as possible.
Companies should produce at the rate of customer demand.
Working faster just for the sake of getting the most out of workers may be counterproductive.
It is best to selectively use information technology and often better to use manual processes
even when automation is available and would seem to justify its cost in reducing your
headcount. People are the most flexible resource.
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The manual process must be streamlined before it is automated. TPS starts with the customer,
by asking, "What value are we adding from the customer's perspective?" Because the only
thing that adds value in any type of process- be it in manufacturing, marketing, or a
development process-is the physical or information transformation of that product, service, or
activity into something the customer wants.

TPS is all about commitment to continuously investing in its people and promoting a culture
of continuous improvement. When Toyota sets up assembly lines, it selects only the best and
brightest workers, and challenges them to grow in their jobs by constantly solving problems.
Similarly, Toyota staffs sales, engineering, service parts, accounting, human resources, and
every aspect of the business with carefully selected individuals and empowers them to
improve their processes and find innovative ways to satisfy their customers.
Toyota is a true learning organization that has been evolving and learning for most part of a
century. Many U.S. companies have embraced lean tools but do not understand what makes
them work together in a system. They do not understand the power behind true TPS. That lies
in Toyota’s continuous improvement culture.

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TOYOTA WAY

The Toyota Way incorporates the Toyota Production System
A Brief History
The roots of the Toyota Way can be traced back to Sakichi Toyoda, a tinkerer and inventor,
who grew up in the late 1800s in a remote farming community outside of Nagoya. As a boy,
Toyoda learned carpentry from his father and started designing and building wooden spinning
machines. In 1894 he began to make manual looms that were cheaper and more efficient than
existing looms. Toyoda’s mother, grandmother, and their friends worked hard spinning and
weaving. To relieve them of this punishing labour, he set out to develop power-driven
wooden looms. Toyoda eventually developed sophisticated automatic power looms. Among
his inventions was a special mechanism to automatically stop a loom whenever a thread
broke. This invention led to the concept of jidoka (automation with a human touch). If
Sakichi Toyoda put his mark on the industrial world through loom making, Just-In-Time was
his son Kiichiro Toyoda's contribution. His ideas were influenced by a study trip to Ford's
plants in Michigan to see the automobile industry Kiichiro was also inspired by the U.S.
supermarket system of replacing products on the shelves just in time as customers purchased
them.

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After World War II, the Americans realized the need for trucks in order to rebuild Japan and
even helped Toyota to start building trucks again. As the economy gained momentum, Toyota
had little difficulty getting orders for automobiles. But rampant inflation made money
worthless and collections became very difficult. As the cash crunch worsened, Toyota
adopted strict cost-cutting policies, including voluntary pay cuts by managers and a 10
percent cut in pay for all employees.

Even before the Second World War, Toyota had realized that the Japanese market was too
small and demand too fragmented to support the high production volumes in the U.S. Toyota
realized that to survive in the long run, it would have to adapt the mass production approach
for the Japanese market. Bigger rivals like Ford had tons of cash and a large U.S. and
international market. Toyota had no cash and operated in a small country. With few resources
and capital, Toyota needed to turn cash around quickly. Ford had a complete supply system,
Toyota did not. Toyota didn't have the luxury of taking cover under high volume and
economies of scale afforded by Ford's mass production system. It needed to adapt Ford's
manufacturing process to achieve simultaneously high quality, low cost, short lead times, and
flexibility. Toyota needed to churn out low volumes of different models using the same
assembly line, because consumer demand in Japan was too low to support dedicated
assembly lines for one vehicle.
Most businesses use processes that are filled with waste, because work in Step 1 is performed
in large batches before it is needed by Step 2. This "work in process" must then be stored and
tracked and maintained until needed by step 2. TPS is a "pull system", in which every step of
every manufacturing process has the equivalent of a "gas gauge" built in, (called kanban), to
signal to the previous step when its parts need to be replenished. This creates "pull" which
continues cascading backwards to the beginning of the manufacturing cycle.
The Toyota Way is a set of principles and behaviours that underlie the Toyota Motor
Corporation's managerial approach and production system. Toyota first summed up its
philosophy, values and manufacturing ideals in 2001, calling it "The Toyota Way 2001". It
consists of principles in two key areas: continuous improvement, and respect for people.
The two focal points of the principles are continuous improvement and respect for people.
The principles for a continuous improvement include establishing a long-term vision,
working on challenges, continual innovation, and going to the source of the issue or problem.
The principles relating to respect for people include ways of building respect and teamwork.

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Toyota’s Building Blocks
The 14 principles of The Toyota Way are organized in four sections: (1) long-term
philosophy, (2) the right process will produce the right results, (3) add value to the
organization by developing your people, and (4) continuously solving root problems drives
organizational learning.
Principle 1. Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense
of short-term financial goals.
Principle 2. Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface.
Principle 3. Use “pull" systems to avoid overproduction.
Principle 4. Level out the workload (heijunka).
Principle 5. Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time.
Principle 6.

Standardized tasks are the foundation for continuous improvement and

employee empowerment.
Principle 7. Use visual control so no problems are hidden.
Principle 8. Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and
processes.
Principle 9. Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and
teach it to others.
Principle 10. Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company's philosophy.
Principle 11. Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them
and helping them improve
Principle 12.

Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation (genchi

genbutsu).
Principle 13.

Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options;

implement decisions rapidly.
Principle 14. Become a learning organization through relentless reflection (hansei) and
continuous improvement (kaizen).

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Long-term philosophy
The first principle involves managing with a long-view rather than for short-term gain. It
reflects a belief that people need purpose to find motivation and establish goals.

Right process will produce right results
The next seven principles are focused on process with an eye towards quality outcome.
Following these principles, work processes are redesigned to eliminate waste (muda) through
the process of continuous improvement — kaizen. The seven types of muda are (1)
overproduction; (2) waiting, time on hand; (3) unnecessary transport or conveyance; (4) over
processing or incorrect processing; (5) excess inventory; (6) motion; and (7) defects.
The principles in this section empower employees in spite of the bureaucratic processes of
Toyota, as any employee in the Toyota has the authority to stop production to signal a quality
issue, emphasizing that quality takes precedence (Jidoka). The way the Toyota bureaucratic
system is implemented to allow for continuous improvement (kaizen) from the people
affected by that system so that any employee may aid in the growth and improvement of the
company.
Recognition of the value of employees is also part of the principle of measured production
rate (heijunka), as a level workload helps avoid overburdening people and equipment (muri),
but this is also intended to minimize waste (muda) and avoid uneven production levels
(mura).

These principles are also designed to ensure that only essential materials are employed (to
avoid overproduction), that the work environment is maintained efficiently (the 5S Program)
to help people share work stations and to reduce time looking for needed tools, and that the
technology used is reliable and thoroughly tested.

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Value to organization by developing people
Human development is the focus of principles 9 through 11. Principle 9 emphasizes the need
to ensure that leaders embrace and promote the corporate philosophy. This reflects, according
to Liker, a belief that the principles have to be ingrained in employees to survive. The 10th
principle emphasizes the need of individuals and work teams to embrace the company's
philosophy, with teams of 4-5 people who are judged in success by their team achievements,
rather than their individual efforts. Principle 11 looks to business partners, who are treated by
Toyota much like they treat their employees. Toyota challenges them to do better and helps
them to achieve it, providing cross functional teams to help suppliers discover and fix
problems so that they can become a stronger, better supplier.

Solving root problems drives organizational learning
The final principles embrace a philosophy of problem solving that emphasizes thorough
understanding, consensus-based solutions swiftly implemented and continual reflection
(hansei) and improvement (kaizen). The 12th principle (Genchi Genbutsu) sets out the
expectation that managers will personally evaluate operations so that they have a firsthand
understanding of situations and problems. Principle 13 encourages thorough consideration of
possible solutions through a consensus process, with rapid implementation of decisions once
reached (nemawashi). The final principle requires that Toyota be a "learning organization",
continually reflecting on its practices and striving for improvement. According to Liker, the
process of becoming a learning organization involves criticizing every aspect of what one
does.

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Towards one piece flow
To become lean, companies have to create continuous flow wherever applicable. Flow also
tends to force the implementation of a lot of the other lean tools and philosophies such as
preventive maintenance. Creating flow exposes inefficiencies that demand immediate
solutions. Everyone concerned is motivated to fix the problems and inefficiencies because the
plant will shut down if they don't. Traditional business processes, in contrast, have the
capacity to hide vast inefficiencies without anyone noticing. Flow means that a customer
order triggers the process of obtaining the raw materials needed just for that customer's order.
The raw materials then flow immediately to supplier plants, where workers immediately fill
the order with components, which flow immediately to a plant, where workers assemble the
order, and then the completed order flows immediately to the customer. The whole process
should take a few hours or days, rather than a few weeks or months. In a large batch
operation, there are probably weeks of work in process between operations and it can take
weeks or even months from the time a defect is caused until it is discovered. By then it is
nearly impossible to track down and identify why the defect occurred. By making a product
flow, we can set in motion numerous activities to eliminate all muda (wastes). In lean
thinking, the ideal batch size is one. Creating flow means linking together operations that
otherwise are disjointed. There is more teamwork, rapid feedback on earlier quality problems,
control over the process, and direct pressure for people to solve problems and think and grow.
Ultimately, the main benefit of one-piece flow is that it challenges people to think and
improve.

Quality - It is much easier to build in quality in one-piece flow. Every operator is an
inspector and works to fix any problems in station before passing them on. But if defects do
get missed and passed on, they will be detected very quickly and the problem can be
immediately diagnosed and corrected.

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Pull Systems (Kanban)

Kanban is a system to control the logistical chain from a production point of view, and is an
inventory control system. Kanban was developed by Taiichi Ohno, an industrial
engineer at Toyota, as a system to improve and maintain a high level of production. Kanban
is one method to achieve JIT.
Kanban became an effective tool to support running a production system as a whole, and an
excellent way to promote improvement. Problem areas are highlighted by reducing the
number of kanban in circulation.

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One of the main benefits of kanban is to establish an upper limit to the work in progress
inventory, avoiding overloading of the manufacturing system. Kanban aligns inventory levels
with actual consumption. A signal tells a supplier to produce and deliver a new shipment
when material is consumed. These signals are tracked through the replenishment cycle,
bringing visibility to the supplier, consumer, and buyer.
Kanban uses the rate of demand to control the rate of production, passing demand from the
end customer up through the chain of customer-store processes. In 1953, Toyota applied this
logic in their main plant machine shop.
Kanban is part of an approach where the "pull" comes from demand. Re-supply or production
is determined according to the actual demand of the customer. In contexts where supply time
is lengthy and demand is difficult to forecast, often, the best one can do is to respond quickly
to observed demand. This situation is exactly what a kanban system accomplishes, in that it is
used as a demand signal that immediately travels through the supply chain. This ensures that

intermediate stock held in the supply chain is better managed, and are usually smaller. Where
the supply response is not quick enough to meet actual demand fluctuations, thereby causing
potential lost sales, stock building may be deemed more appropriate, and is achieved by
placing more kanban in the system.
Taiichi Ohno stated that, to be effective, kanban must follow strict rules of use. Toyota, for
example, has six simple rules, and close monitoring of these rules is a never-ending task,
thereby ensuring that the kanban does what is required.

Toyota's Six Rules
 Later process picks up the number of items indicated by the kanban at the earlier
process.
 Earlier process produces items in the quantity and sequence indicated by the kanban.
 No items are made or transported without a kanban.
 Always attach a kanban to the goods.
 Defective products are not sent on to the subsequent process. The result is 100%
defect-free goods.

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 Reducing the number of kanban increases the sensitivity.

Kanban cards are a key component of kanban and they signal the need to move materials
within a production facility or to move materials from an outside supplier into the production
facility. The kanban card is, in effect, a message that signals depletion of product, parts, or
inventory. When received, the kanban triggers replenishment of that product, part, or
inventory. Consumption, therefore, drives demand for more production, and the kanban card
signals demand for more products—so kanban cards help create a demand-driven system.

Heijunka

Production levelling is also known as production smoothing or – by its Japanese original
term – heijunka is a technique for reducing the Mura (Unevenness) which in turn
reduces muda (waste). It was vital to the development of production efficiency in the Toyota
Production System and lean manufacturing. The goal is to produce intermediate goods at a
constant rate so that further processing may also be carried out at a constant and predictable
rate.
On a production line, as in any process, fluctuations in performance increase waste. This is
because equipment, workers, inventory and all other elements required for production must
always be prepared for peak production. This is a cost of flexibility. If a later process varies
its withdrawal of parts in terms of timing and quality, the range of these fluctuations will
increase as they move up the line towards the earlier processes. This is known as demand
amplification.
Toyota's final assembly line never assembles the same automobile model in a batch. Instead,
they level production by assembling a mix of models in each batch and the batches are made
as small as possible. This is in contrast to traditional mass production, where long changeover
times meant that it was more economical to punch out as many parts in each batch as

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possible. When the final assembly batches are small, then earlier process batches, such as the
press operations, must also be small and changeover times must be short.

Implementation
1. Implement green stream/red stream or fixed sequence, fixed volume to establish

the entry and exit criteria for products from these streams and establish the supporting
disciplines in the support services. The cycle established will produce Every Product
Every Cycle (EPEC). This is a specific form of Fixed Repeating Schedule. Green
stream products are those with predictable demand, Red stream products are high

value unpredictable demand products.
2. Faster fixed sequence with fixed volume keep the streams the same but use the now
established familiarity with the streams to maximise learning and improve speed of
production (economies of repetition). This will allow the shortening of the EPEC
cycle so that the plant is now producing every product every 2 weeks instead of month
and then later on repeating every week. This may require support services to speed up
as well.
3. Fixed sequence with unfixed volume keep the stream sequences the same but now

phase in allowing actual sales to influence volumes within those sequences. This
affects inbound componentry as well as support services. This is a more generalised
form of Fixed Repeating Schedule.
4. Unfixed sequence with fixed volume the stream sequences, and EPEC, can now be
gradually flexed but move to small fixed batch sizes to make this more manageable.
5. Unfixed sequence with unfixed volume finally move to true single piece flow and
pull by reducing batch sizes until they reach one.

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Quality
Toyota’s philosophy is to identify defects when they occur and automatically stop production
so that the problem can be fixed before the defect continues downstream. Jidoka is also
referred to as autonomation – equipment endowed with human intelligence to stop itself
when it has a problem. In-station quality (preventing problems from being passed down the
line) is much more effective and less costly than inspecting and repairing quality problems
after the fact. The last thing management in traditional mass manufacturing allows is a halt in
production. Bad parts are simply labelled and set aside to be repaired at another time and by
another department. The mantra is to produce large quantities at all costs and fix problems
later. Lean manufacturing dramatically increases the importance of building things right the

first time. With very low levels of inventory, there is no buffer to fall back on in case there is
a quality problem. Problems in operation A will quickly shut down operation B. When
equipment shuts down, flags or lights, usually with accompanying music or an alarm, are
used to signal that help is needed to solve a quality problem.
Andon refers to the light signal for help.
Toyota follows a different approach. Toyota keeps things simple and uses very few complex
statistical tools. The quality specialists and team members have just four key tools:
 Go and see.
 Analyze the situation.
 Use one-piece flow and andon to surface problems.
 Ask "Why?" five times.
Andon works only when employees know the importance of bringing problems to the surface.
Unless there is a problem-solving process already in place and people are following it, there's
no point in spending money on fancy technology. Toyota prefers to first use people and
processes to solve problems, then supplement and support its people with technology. A
common Toyota quality tactic is to anticipate problems as early as possible and put in place
countermeasures before the problems even occur. Occasionally a time-out is required to
reflect on the purpose and direction of the project before moving on. The Toyota Way
emphasises stopping or slowing down to get quality right the first time to enhance
productivity in the long run.
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Standardisation
Toyota believes standardized work is the basis for empowering workers and innovation in the
work place. If the process is shifting, then any improvement will just be one more variation
that is occasionally used and mostly ignored. One must standardize, and thus stabilize the
process, before continuous improvements can be made. Workers follow very detailed
standardized procedures that touch every aspect of the organization. In the workplace,
everything must be in its place. There is strict discipline about time, cost, quality ... and

safety-virtually every minute of the day is structured. But Toyota also values many of the
characteristics associated with flexible organizations referred to as "organic": extensive
employee involvement, a lot of communication, innovation, flexibility, high morale, and a
strong customer focus. Standardisation does not necessarily imply a bureaucratic approach. A
coercive bureaucracy uses standards to control people, catch them breaking the rules, and
punish them to get them back in line. Unlike Taylorism, the Toyota Way preaches that the
worker is the most valuable resource-not just a pair of hands taking orders, but an analyst and
problem solver. Toyota’s enabling systems are simply the best practice methods, designed and
improved upon with the participation of the work force. The standards actually help people
control their own work.
The critical task when implementing standardization is to find that balance between providing
employees with rigid procedures to follow and providing the freedom to innovate and be
creative to meet challenging targets consistently for cost, quality, and delivery. The key to
achieving this balance lies in the way people write standards as well as who contributes to
them. First, the standards have to be specific enough to be useful guides, yet general enough
to allow for some flexibility. Second, the people doing the work have to improve the
standards. Nobody likes rules and procedures when they are imposed on them. Imposed rules
that are strictly policed become coercive and a source of friction and resistance between
management and workers.

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