Toyota Business School -- 68 Details of Refinement Management

Author: Yang Juansen (Compiler)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: Not available
Features: In 2003, Toyota became the first Japanese company to achieve a pre-tax surplus exceeding 1 trillion yen (87.4 billion USD). Toyota President Fujio Cho was selected as one of the world's 15 outstanding managers by U.S. Business Week. In an interview with Business Week, he believed that the only solution for Japan to escape its was to break down the traditional industrial barriers and introduce the "Toyota-style lean management." So, what are the key principles of Toyota's lean management? Here they are:
Establish a Kanban system: This involves reengineering processes, shifting from the traditional practice of production-driven by management to focusing on customer demand. The downstream process personnel use Kanban to inform the upstream process personnel of their needs (e.g., how many parts are needed, when to replenish, etc.), essentially implementing an upstream-controlled production supply chain model. This approach not only reduces inventory costs (achieving zero inventory) but also significantly improves process efficiency.
Emphasize real-time inventory management: Produce what is necessary based on customer demand, in the necessary quantity, at the necessary time. This unique production management concept pioneered by Toyota was already adopted by American companies in the 1980s, with many successful cases.
Standardize operations thoroughly: Toyota has established strict specifications for all work details, including production content, sequence, time control, and results. For example, how long it takes to install tires and engines. However, this does not mean standards are fixed. If workers discover better and more efficient methods, they can modify standard operations.
Eliminate waste and ambiguity: Eliminate waste of any material, labor, time, space, energy, or transportation. Every employee must repeatedly ask "Why" in each work step and then think about "How," following the "5W1H" approach, while ensuring a rigorous attitude in creating perfect manufacturing tasks.
Cultivate automation habits: Here, automation is not limited to machines but also includes human automation, meaning the development of good work habits and continuous learning and innovation. This is also the responsibility of the company. Through continuous improvement and motivation in on-site production education and training, the Toyota Institute was established to enhance personnel quality, responsiveness, and precision in actions.
Toyota Motor finds the most challenging work not in car R&D and technological innovation, but in the precise placement and operation of a single rope by technicians in the production process—ensuring it is neither too high nor too low, not too tight nor too loose, without any twists or discrepancies.
Toyota Motor summarizes the valuable and worth-adopting management practices from the world's top 100 companies to create a benchmark series of large-scale research books for Chinese enterprises.
The "Toyota" car, a globally renowned brand, has become one of the world's top brands due to the company's lean management. Initially, when Toyota proposed the idea of refining management from the production line, the world's major automakers dismissed it. However, through relentless efforts, Toyota eventually led the world in quality. Today, Toyota Motor has become the "world's most successful car manufacturer."
For those familiar with or working in manufacturing, lean management and its remarkable effects on improving production efficiency may already be well-known. The practical results of lean management are astonishing: it can typically save 50% of production space, increase first-pass quality inspection approval rates from 60-70% to over 90%, and boost output by 100% without significantly increasing labor intensity. Moreover, lean management is also applicable to product development, usually reducing process time by 50%.
Furthermore, lean management benefits all large enterprises and those aspiring to grow. Today, research on lean management has spread worldwide, and many companies that study and promote it have achieved significant results. According to Toyota, a former employee who worked at Toyota earned over a million dollars annually by teaching and guiding others in lean management across the world after leaving the company.
To this day, scholars and experts in the U.S. and Europe still hold annual conferences on lean production. This book provides an in-depth and detailed analysis of Toyota's operational system, product development, quality control, product sales, and other 9 major aspects with 68 specific details, revealing Toyota's lean management model and explaining how to apply lean management to other organizations to improve processes from sales to production, R&D, marketing, logistics, and more, establishing lean management learning organizations.