The Toyota Way - Part 1

The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer

Over the course of the next few posts I plan to summarise the main points contained in The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer by Dr Jeff K. Liker.

World Class Power of the Toyota Way
Toyota first caught the worlds attention in the 1980s when consumers started noticing that Toyota cars lasted longer and required fewer repairs than American cars. Today, not only is Asia leading the way in car production (see graphic below) but the company has the biggest market value (see graphic below), consistently producing high-quality cars using fewer man hours and less on-hand inventories.

To this day, Toyota continues to raise the bar for manufacturing, production development and process excellence.

The Toyota Way explains the management principle and business philosophy behind Toyotas success. It narrates Toyotas approach to Lean Production (known as the Toyota Production System) and the 14 principles that drive Toyota towards quality and excellence. The book also explains how you can adopt the same principles to improve your business processes, while cutting down on operations and production costs (this BBC News article contains a great overview of these principles in action as does this YouTube video). For an understanding of how the TPS is being applied outside of manufacturing, you may also want to listen to this which answers this question:

Japanese management techniques have revolutionised the car industry, but what do waste-averse production lines have to do with the delicate business of health care?

Using Operational Excellence as a Strategic Weapon

The TPS and Lean Production
Toyota developed Lean Production methods in the 1940s and 50s. The company focused on eliminating wasted time and material from every step of the production process (from raw materials to finished goods).

The result was a fast and flexible process that gives the customers what they want,
when they want it, at the highest quality and most affordable cost. Toyota improved
production by:

• Eliminating wasted time and resources.
• Building quality into workplace systems.
• Finding low-cost and yet reliable alternatives to expensive new technology.
• Perfecting business processes.
• Building a learning culture for continuous improvement.

The “4P” model of The Toyota Way

Next post … how Toyota became the World’s Best Manufacturer