Category Archives: Toyota Production System (TPS)

Talking with Toyota’s CEO

Posted on February 23, 2007 by John Hunter

Talking with Toyota’s Top Man [the broken link was removed] But there’s still more work to be done? The scariest symptom of “big-company disease” is that complacency will breed in the company. To be satisfied with becoming the top runner, and to become arrogant, is the path we must be most fearful of. There are so many challenges and issues that we need to address. Each individual [needs] to have the mentality to challenge those problems. Problems must be made … Continue reading →

Posted in Management Articles, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged

More Positive Press for Toyota Management

Posted on February 19, 2007 by John Hunter

via NY Times Magazine on Toyota, a very good article: From 0 to 60 to World Domination Certainly the most obvious example of Toyota’s long view is the Prius hybrid. I don’t think so, that is an example of their medium term thinking. Personal Robot Aids, biotechnology, housing and environmental development – that is long term thinking. More on Non-Automotive Toyota. And yet deconstructing Toyota means breaking down a corporation that uses all its resources, and more than 295,000 employees … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Management Articles, Toyota Production System (TPS)

Toyota Institute for Managers

Posted on February 15, 2007 by John Hunter

The ‘Toyota Way’ Is Translated for a New Generation of Foreign Managers [the broken link was removed] “For Americans and anyone, it can be a shock to the system to be actually expected to make problems visible,” said Ms. Newton, a 38-year-old Indiana native who joined Toyota after college 15 years ago and now works at the North American headquarters in Erlanger, Ky. “Other corporate environments tend to hide problems from bosses.” … It is the Toyota Institute, charged with … Continue reading →

Posted in Management Articles, Toyota Production System (TPS) | 2 Comments

Danaher – Lean Thinking

Posted on February 14, 2007 by John Hunter

A Dynamo Called Danaher [the broken link was removed] DBS, as it’s called, is a set of management tools borrowed liberally from the famed Toyota Production System. In essence, it requires every employee, from the janitor to the president, to find ways every day to improve the way work gets done. Such quality-improvement programs and lean manufacturing methods have been de rigueur for manufacturers for years. The difference at Danaher: The company started lean in 1987, one of the earliest … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing, Lean thinking, Management Articles, Manufacturing, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Short Video on TPS History

Posted on February 5, 2007 by John Hunter

Short video on TPS History from the Art of Lean web site. The video discusses Toyota history and topics including: Jidoka, Just in Time… Related: Toyota Production System posts – manufacturing posts – management webcasts

Posted in Management, Toyota Production System (TPS), webcast

Motivating People to Change

Posted on February 4, 2007 by John Hunter

Don’t miss a nice series of posts by Jon Miller: How to Motivate People to Change – part 1, part 2, part 3. [links broken, so removed 🙁 ] Success may come in the short term when motivation is through a combination of fear and reward centering on financial safety and security, belonging to a group and achievement of status… There is some question as to whether this type of approach to motivation is sustainable, and at the very least … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Psychology, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , ,

Toyota Management Speech by Gary Convis

Posted on February 2, 2007 by John Hunter

Gary Convis – Management Briefing Seminars [the link that Toyota broke was removed] To be a successful automaker or supplier in today’s competitive world, I believe every single person involved in your value chain must fully understand the company’s mission and direction, and execute their roles perfectly to move toward shared goals. As an example, when a potential customer walks into a dealership, they are about to buy the second most expensive product they will ever own. This is not … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Toyota Business Webcast

Posted on January 29, 2007 by John Hunter

[The video was removed from YouTube] Interesting, 4 minute, segment on Toyota management practices from a business TV show. via: Lean Six Sigma Academy Blog [the broken link was removed] Related: New Toyota CEO’s Views – What drives Toyota? – Toyota – Repect for People – Dell Falls Short – posts on management webcasts

Posted in Toyota Production System (TPS)

Toyota’s Real Secret?

Posted on January 24, 2007 by John Hunter

Well actually it isn’t a secret – it is in fact the Toyota Production/Management System. Maybe, if people assume the TPS is about improvement in the factory alone, then they could miss the true importance as the management system that it is. So I quibble a little bit with the title but this is actually a good article by John Teresko, Toyota’s Real Secret: Hint, It’s Not TPS [the broken link was removed]: Toyota’s time-to-market metrics are one measure of … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Management Articles, Manufacturing, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged ,

Reacting to Product Problems

Posted on January 20, 2007 by John Hunter

Previously we posted on recalls at Toyota and Sony. Recently Toyota announced another large recall. Investor’s Business Daily writes on the topic in: The Ups And Downs Of Doing Product Recalls – Japan-Style [the broken link was removed]: Kitayama also said Akio Toyoda, grandson of Kiichiro Toyoda, Toyota’s founder, played a key role by opening a direct line to suppliers that had supplied defective car parts. He stressed that quality comes before meeting delivery deadlines. Interesting. The article also discusses … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Manufacturing, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , ,

In-house Health Clinics

Posted on January 14, 2007 by John Hunter

Big Companies Turning To In-house Health Clinics (article removed – poor usability – so link removed) Today a new wave of clinics is opening, driven largely by a motive that was less of a factor in the past: employers’ desires to reduce their health insurance premiums by taking care of workers before they need to see outside doctors. More than 100 of the nation’s 1,000 largest employers now offer on-site primary care or preventive health services – a number forecast … Continue reading →

Posted in Health care, Management, Systems thinking, Toyota Production System (TPS) | 1 Comment

Breakthrough Thinking the Toyota Way

Posted on January 9, 2007 by John Hunter

The Elegant Solution: Breakthrough Thinking the Toyota Way (pdf) by Matthew May: One Million. That’s how many ideas Toyota implements each year. Do the math: 3000 ideas a day. That number, more than anything else, explains why Toyota appears to be in a league all their own, playing offense on a field of innovation, while their competitors remain caught in a crossfire of cost-cutting. Here’s the thing: it’s not about the cars. It’s about ideas. And the people with those … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Creativity, Innovation, Management, Management Articles, Toyota Production System (TPS)

Interview with Toyota President

Posted on December 20, 2006 by John Hunter

Very interesting interview with Katsuaki Watanabe – Toyota President seeks growth without major quality problems: For the North American-exclusive models, we would like to localize as much as possible the r&d activities, like factory, production engineering and production preparation. We need to improve the engineering capabilities in those functions so that we will be able to localize more of those activities. So in that sense, they have to increase and enhance the operations at TMMA. We are likely to increase … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Toyota Production System (TPS)

Toyota Production System for Sales…

Posted on December 4, 2006 by John Hunter

Corporate profile: the Toyota Production System [the broken link was removed] by Sarah Perrin: Within Toyota itself, non-production personnel support the TPS approach. “We very much value the Toyota way,” says David Betteley, managing director of Toyota Financial Services (UK) and vice president operations for Europe and Africa. “The key values of the Toyota way are teamwork, respect, challenge, kaizen and genchi genbutsu. “You produce a new product and it can be replicated by a competitor almost immediately, so you … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management Articles, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Fast Company: What drives Toyota?

Posted on November 16, 2006 by John Hunter

Very good article – What drives Toyota? [the broken link was removed] by Charles Fishman: So a team of assembly employees made a real decision. Don’t make the worker pick the parts; let him focus on installing them. The idea seems obvious in retrospect: Deliver a kit of presorted visors and seat belts–one kit per car, each containing exactly the right parts. The team applied the simplest technology available, the blue Rubbermaid caddy. “We went just down the road to … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Manufacturing, Toyota Production System (TPS) | 1 Comment

TPS and Jidoka

Posted on November 15, 2006 by John Hunter

TPS & Jidoka, interview of Tomo “Tom” Harada by Art Smalley: There are two different parts to Jidoka. The first meaning is to separate man from machine. It was normal in the original parent company for a single young woman to operate many machines since they were automated. So when Mr. Ohno came to the automotive company after WWII and saw one man operating one machine tool he thought that it was strange and inefficient. He embarked upon a path … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management, Manufacturing, Quality tools, Toyota Production System (TPS)