Excellence at Toyota Motor Manufacturing in the United States

Since its inception in 1937, Toyota has grown to be the third largest auto

producer and fifth largest industrial company in the world. Toyota sets the

standard in efficiency, productivity and quality in the auto manufacturing

industry; and is the envy from rivals such as Ford, Chrysler and GM. Toyota’s

product quality and service is recognised by various independent agencies

such as J.D. Power and Associates and Motor Trend.

IndustryWeek has named Toyota as one of the world’s 100 best-managed

companies.

With its transplant to Georgetown, Kentucky (TMMK) in 1988, industry

insiders have wondered how Toyota will implement its form of management

and team culture in the American setting. Earlier in 1994, Toyota’s

joint venture withGMinNewUnited Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI)

had yielded valuable lessons in labour-management co-operation.

Toyota reproduced many features of management philosophy and practices,

yet several practices have been altered or eliminated. Practices such as

teamwork, group orientation, work structure, plant layout, job rotation and

community of fate theme have been adopted. Promotion based on seniority,

lifetime employment, company unions have been modified to fit local

needs.

Since quality is an end result of a process, we will have to examine the

process and the human side of the process. Lessons learned can then be applied

to our own organisation for improvement.

Japanese Value/Philosophy

In order to better understand Japanese management systems, one needs to

understand the social-technical systems (STS); which are based on the

awareness that everything depends upon everything else, and that performance

is the product of the interactions of the sub-systems. Japanese prescribed

to amodel and follow the correct process, result will then follow. In

an organisation, it is translated to employees as to think of the implications

of the network first and individual second. Mutually beneficial relationships

are based on mutual trust, and participants share in business gains.

Harmony or wa, is the foundation and building block of Japanese relationships.

The desire to keep harmony in relationships puts emphasis on co-operation, consensus building “nemawashi”, participative management and

shared decision-making “ringi”. Although the process is time-consuming,

implementation is fast because of the widespread awareness and support for

the proposal already gained throughout the process. Japanese use this to

look at the “big picture”, consider alternatives and foreseeable problems before

implementation.

It is interesting to note how harmony plays a unique role in Japanese competition

that is unconceivable in the United States. Competition is intense

within the industries, but players compete with the spirit of co-operation.

Japanese competition centres on preserving market share, not on seeking

profitability. To gain a favourable impression from consumers and market

share, organisations become service-oriented, with emphasis on quality and

reliability.

Toyota Production System (TPS)

TPS was established by Taiichi Ohno, with concepts designed to maximise

flow, eliminate waste and respect people; with the foundation