The cover story in latest issue of Industry Week focuses on what people have missed when applying ideas from the Toyota Production System.
Learning From Toyota — Again by John Teresko:
“Why is it that the TPS tools of lean, agile, TQM, TPM, re-engineering, just-in-time, cellular/continuous workflow and so on — never seem to really pay off big [aside from Toyota]?” asks Michael Paris, president of Hinsdale, Ill.-based Paris:Consulting. His response: “Unless TPS is everywhere in an organization, it is nowhere. Too often managers pushing for performance improvements have a limited vision and scope. They fail to approach the executive team that has responsibility for the entire enterprise and authority over it.”
Continuous Improvement In The Executive Suite by Patricia Panchak:
We’ve watched as Toyota’s strength and market share steadily grew for two decades. We’ve adopted the Toyota Production System (TPS), which we correctly determined is the source of Toyota’s success. But we missed something that is now becoming ever more clear: Continuous improvement is as integral to corporate strategy as it is to production strategy. Executives looking for a long-term competitive edge should take note.
The tools of TQM, lean manufacturing, TPS, six sigma… are useful. But the extraordinary gains are made when the entire system is geared toward improvement.
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