Toyota's Management Research Articles

The role of technology in industry according to the BOST method

Data for analysis and scientific interpretation was obtained by conducting a qualitative study in an industrial setting, using the BOST questionnaire – Toyota management principles in questions. The foundation of the research was the Eastern, particularly Japanese philosophy of the approach to production, expressed in the participation of the entire workforce in the evaluation and improvement of activities occurring during the manufacture of products.The paper will present the results relating to Toyota management principles 1 and 2. Arithmetic averages will be calculated for the sets of scores obtained. They are the basis for the being the material result of the production process. For investigations, the 3x3 matrix, after some modification, will be used to assess the relationship between technological capabilities and product competitiveness. The structure of the map described by the technological capabilities and competitiveness of the product gives information on the desirability of manufacturing the product in question.The paper will examine the relationship between the capabilities of technology and the competitiveness of the products of a metalworking company in light of selected Toyota principles. The opinion of production personnel is an important factor in the process of evaluating technology to increase the competitiveness of the products obtained.In the research, employees of the operational level, i.e. the part of the crew that is directly involved in shaping products and creating quality, were used to obtain data on the evaluation of the course of production processes.The technology implemented by specific machines serves to produce a specific product, which is the material result of the production process. The material result should be transformed into a financial result, which is determined by the number of units of the product sold.The product of a given enterprise, according to the laws of the free market, should be better, cheaper, etc., than the product of another enterprise.

Toyota's production efficiency improvement management: best practice for productivity evaluation and operation improvement

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to introduce an enterprise's productivity management named “Production efficiency improvement - PEFF”. This study shows the way of developing the management system to keep their shop floor “flexible to change” and “continuously controlling and improving” from the different levels and in various factories.Design/methodology/approachThis study refers to Toyota's PEFF management system in the context of productivity enhancement through detailed management processes including yearly management, monthly management, daily management and its application in a case study from another sector as a model case of PEFF expansion. The methodology of this study is to introduce a method for production efficiency analysis, measure and select standard time through PEFF calculation.FindingsToyota's PEFF management can be extremely effective at developing management's ability to conduct day-to-day shop-floor management, know-how sharing and how Toyota applies PEFF to develop the world-standard on manpower efficiency for their factories. Besides, this study shows the applicable of PEFF improvement has successfully conducted in other manufacturers in a flexible way to achieve the improvement targets.Research limitations/implicationsThe results of this study will aid the managers in production lines to find the method of calculating and evaluating production efficiency through Toyota's management techniques such as PEFF, YIP, WVACT and standard time. However, the approach for this paper was from a synchronized system as Toyota is limited to generalized to small and medium-sized enterprises.Originality/valueThis paper is introducing the original Toyota's management technique to sustainable enhance their manpower performance and efficiency and answer the question of why TPS still exists in the age of digital management. PEFF management serves as an example of a value management process to help manufacturers to set guidelines to improve their productivity.

ПРОИЗВОДСТВЕННАЯ СИСТЕМА TOYOTA: ИСТОКИ КОНЦЕПЦИИ БЕРЕЖЛИВОГО ПРОИЗВОДСТВА

This paper presents a study aimed at improving the efficiency of lean manufacturing implementation by examining the origins of the concept. The purpose of the study is to draw a complete picture of the origins of lean production on the basis of the Toyota management system. Tasks of research: consideration of experience and works of scientists known in the world management, and also key tools of the concept. Research methods: analysis of scientific articles included in Scopus and Web of Science and other literature. The result of the study is a knowledge base, which is necessary to understand the correct principle of the concept and minimize the deviations and errors in its implementation at the enterprise.

The Improvement of Production Using Elements of the Toyota’s House Roof - Case Study

Abstract The article presents a case study of the practical use of BOST surveys to identify the most important factors in chosen enterprise. This article presents an analysis of the answers given to the question contained in the BOST questionnaire, referring to the roof of Toyota’s house. Toyota's management principles by Jeffrey Liker were pointed out, which refers to elements of Toyota’s house roof. Results of the survey were presented and the proposal to improving the processes in the enterprise. Research results were subjected to statistical analysis with a use of basic statistical parameters. It was made a correlation analysis connected with elements of the Toyota’s house roof. Evaluation structure was presented in a graphic form. Based on the survey results of carried out on the population of production workers, a series of importance areas for improvement was formulated. The aim of the analysis is to present which factors are the most important by building the significance sequences of obtained results. The results obtained for the type of small and medium-sized enterprises overlap with the results of tests verified in other enterprises.

The improvement of processes in car industry with the usage of 14 principle of Toyota’s management

The article is presenting the results of research conducted in company which produces car parts It was introduced an analysis of results obtained on the base of the BOST questionnaire survey and it was made a statistical analysis concerning fourteenth Toyota management principle

The importance of factors which describe the 3 Toyota principle in the bost method during the functioning of special processes

The article shows an analysis of results obtained on the base of the BOST questionnaire survey It was made a correlation analysis connected with third Toyota management principle Evaluation structure was presented in a graphic form

Construction-fitting process organization and management in a small business

Abstract The article presents results of research concerning identification of organization schemes and management processes that make a small construction company function efficiently and hold against other entities in local markets. It was estimated to what extent the classic principles for organization and management are realized in a small construction company. Basic for that evaluation were the Toyota management principles and the HR organization principles as gathered and quoted by Rowiński. The research was conducted with the guided interview method, supplemented by CAWI (Computer-Assisted Web Interview) survey. Based on the information gathered the characteristics of organization and management of small construction companies active in the business of finishing works were described. The most important elements presented were the owner-employee relations, scope of activities performed personally by the owner, quality assurance methods for works, scope of cooperation with other entities, mode of customer acquisition and ways in which new technologies are adopted. It was found that there is large coincidence between organizational and management principles applied in researched companies, and the rules for the Toyota manufacturing processes, slightly lower coincidence was found in case of analysis of the rules quoted by Rowiński. The research has shown the large universality of the rules found in literature – these are largely accomplished, even without owners and employees having the knowledge about their exact reading.

Qualidade, eficiência e avaliação docente: uma nova pedagogia flexível?

Neste artigo sero discutidas questes como qualidade, eficincia e avaliao, temas que candentes na area da educao, relacionam-se a reestruturao do mundo do trabalho contemporneo. As metamorfoses do mundo do trabalho e da educao correspondem ao continuum processo de mudanas desencadeadas nos pases capitalistas centrais a partir da dcada de 1970. Neste contexto, o toyotismo emergiu como organizao flexvel cuja eficincia produtiva assentada na polivalncia exigia a reeducao dos trabalhadores para a realizao do trabalho. Mais ainda, a gesto toyotista enquanto mecanismo de reproduo social, ao extrapolar o universo fabril, se imps como uma nova lgica societal patenteada, por exemplo, na proposta de formao de professores por meio de reformas educacionais. Nesse sentido, interessa-nos analisar a intrnseca relao entre o protocolo organizacional toyotista, a saber: CCQ Crculos de Controle de Qualidade, Qualidade Total, Team-Work e a qualidade e avaliao docente, com vistas a evidenciar a influncia da lgica toyotista na formao docente contempornea.

ENSURING CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT PROCESSES THROUGH STANDARDIZATION IN THE AUTOMOTIVE COMPANY

This chapter presents the concept of standardization. Presented research subject-central lamp, which is part of the car's external illumination. With BOST questionnaire - management principles Toyota's questions were analyzed E6 area associated with the six Toyota management principle.

An Evaluation of Validity of the Second Toyota's Management Principle Factors With the Use of The Bost Research in a Chosen Production Company

An Evaluation of Validity of the Second Toyota's Management Principle Factors With the Use of The Bost Research in a Chosen Production Company

Company citizenship creation in the developing countries in the era of globalization

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine whether a multinational company can transmit its corporate management system and operations management system from its domestic operation to its subsidiary located in a country with very different national culture.Design/methodology/approachThis research proposes that it is possible for a multinational company to override differences in national culture and create a “company citizenship” across the globe, with similar corporate management and operations management system. Another purpose of this research is to show that it is not true that globalization would create just one single culture, originated in the USA and Western Europe, which is called “Jet‐Set Culture” by Freedman. Japanese multinational companies are spreading their own unique organizational values of their management system across the world in their subsidiaries. Thus, different multinational companies may create their own unique organizational culture that produces their own company citizenship, which can be spread globally. To prove these hypotheses, this paper has reported the result of a survey conducted in the domestic operations of the Toyota Motor Company (Toyota) and in its operations in India.FindingsCore values of Toyota's management systems are derived from the values that are identified in the mission statement of Toyota. According to the results of the survey based on opinions of Toyota's employees, there are broad similarities in the values composing its management systems, irrespective of national locations. Thus, Toyota has managed to form the “company citizenship” in its headquarters in the host country, Japan, and successfully transmitted it in its subsidiary located in the host country, India, with an alien national culture.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper shows that company citizenships of different companies, based on their unique organizational cultures, but not on their national cultures, are emerging as a new organizational form in this global era.Practical implicationsDifferent multinational companies may create their own unique organizational culture that produces their own company citizenship and which can be spread globally.Originality/valueThis paper proposes that there are some specific espoused values in every important multinational company, which form its organizational cultures and create values, which in turn may form commitment of its employees. These commitments are the indicator of successful performance of a company because creation of commitment leads to success of the company; this interrelationship between culture and commitment can be called company citizenship and can be transmitted from one part of the globe to another by a multinational company through the transmission of its corporate management and operations management system.

Anatomy of crisis management: lessons from the infamous Toyota Case

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the issue of crisis management within the Toyota Corporation's series of worldwide recalls for multiple malfunctions on a number of different Toyota brands of vehicles. The analysis relates to the difficulty now faced by Toyota, previously recognized as the world's leading manufacturer of automotive vehicles. The crisis became so great that Toyota corporate leaders even traveled from Japan to testify before a US Congressional Committee hearing.Design/methodology/approachA crisis, typically considered to be a negative issue, can be a positive event in the life of a business firm, such as Toyota, if the management involved seizes the opportunity to make appropriate changes in its operations to facilitate continuing positive growth and development. However, this opportunity was not initially addressed by Toyota in a meaningful way, and the crisis continued to evolve through subsequent stages, bringing a vast array of negative international criticism. The crisis management paradigm that is the focus for this case identifies four stages of a crisis – the preliminary (pre‐) crisis, acute crisis, chronic crisis, and crisis resolution. The present crisis deals with several different malfunctions that were identified, apparently by customers, in various Toyota brands, but publically ignored by Toyota's management. Therefore, the pre‐crisis stage was not appropriately dealt with by Toyota, and the firm was thrust into an acute crisis that has now evolved into a chronic crisis. A brief overview of the historical development of Toyota is presented, and an analysis of the present crisis situation in which the firm found itself is presented in some detail.FindingsIt was concluded that Toyota is now in a very difficult position in the chronic crisis stage due to the failure of its management to facilitate a timely response to the malfunctions of its vehicles.Originality/valueThe paper presents an excellent example of crisis mismanagement by a previously recognized world leader.

Management directed kaizen: Toyota's Jishuken process for management development

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze Toyota's management directed kaizen activities named Jishuken. Currently, there are many variations in understanding how Toyota develops its managers to support daily kaizen, especially when Toyota managers have different levels of understanding of Toyota production system (TPS) and skills essential in applying TPS.Design/methodology/approachThis paper will study Toyota's Jishuken process in the context of strengthening TPS and analyze both the technical and management aspects of Toyota's Jishuken process.FindingsWhen integrated into plant‐wide long‐term continuous improvement, Jishukens can be extremely effective at developing management's ability to conduct and to teach others to conduct daily kaizen and problem solving. This paper shows how Jishukens function within the TPS system to continuously improve managers' understanding of TPS both for their own concrete problem solving and to support manager's roles in communicating, coaching and teaching problem solving to production workers.Originality/valueMost attempts to imitate Toyota fail because techniques are adopted piecemeal with little understanding of why they exist or what kind of organizational culture is needed to keep them alive. Jishuken serves as an example of a technique which is successful only when embedded within the right organizational culture.

Why Are We Still Underperforming?

IN 1999, we learned from the Institute of Medicine that American healthcare crashes the equivalent of a 747 each day, meaning about 300 people die unnecessarily from medical errors (Institute of Medicine 1999). Have we learned anything since this report came out ten years ago? I contend not much. While there is more public reporting of hospital performance, the results indicate even the best performers still incur 10,000 to 50,000 defects per million opportunities, or 2 to 4 sigma performance (Yang 2005), which means we may be only crashing a 737 a day now. Why are we still underperforming on healthcare quality? The article by Kurt Stuenkel and Taunya Faulkner describes one healthcare organization's challenge to improve performance. David Mann's article documents specific leadership issues associated with underperformance and addresses how we need to change our leadership model to improve the situation. Our ultimate goal should be to change the way healthcare workers and managers practice and behave. In other words, change the culture of our organizations - which is still largely and - to that of continuous improvement. Many experts have studied and written about the Lean management approach to continuous improvement (Womack and Jones 2003), and it has proven extremely effective in producing results (Spear 2008). So why aren't more companies adopting it? The root cause is unknown, but experience tells us that only 1 out of 20 companies that try to implement Lean is successful (Koenigsaecker 2009). My hypothesis is that there is a series of important components that must be implemented for a company to be successful at Lean. Most companies don't pay attention to all the components. 7 STEPS TO CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT Seven of these important components are listed below, and they are expanded in the following pages, especially those that relate to healthcare leadership and management. 1. Understand the mission of the organization. 2. Identify a clearly defined strategy that articulates the value the organization plans to deliver to the customer. 3. Set clear and simple goals and deploy them from the CEO to the frontline worker using policy deployment (Dennis 2007). 4. Visually report all performance data, including defects for staff and physicians. 5. Be transparent with results. In other words, publicly report physician and hospital performance measures, as is happening in Wisconsin through the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality (wchq.org). 6. Establish a methodology for improvement. At ThedaCare, this is the ThedaCare Improvement System, which is the Toyota Production System applied to healthcare. 7. Change the leadership philosophy to support continuous improvement. WHAT'S WRONG WITH HEALTHCARE MANAGEMENT? Healthcare management needs an overhaul. The same problems that have plagued the American auto industry plague American healthcare. If healthcare continues on its current path, our future looks more like GM's than Toyota's. The root cause of the problem is our outdated management system, which is based on a command and control paradigm, in contrast to a Toyota management system. The differences are well articulated in Mann's description of Lean leaders' roles and responsibilities. In our traditional healthcare management world, managers are rewarded for telling their superiors that dysfunctional systems are really fine. Therefore, they are indirectly taught to hide problems rather than address the issues, for fear it will show weakness in their management work. In the Lean world, no problem is a problem. Managers who don't identify problems in an open and honest way are considered weak. Problems and challenges are seen as valuable opportunities to mentor, learn, teach, or go to gemba (the place where value is created for the patient). Traditional and Lean management approaches are completely opposite from each other, which is why sustaining a transition to Lean is so hard to do, as Mann correctly points out. …

Toyota Production Systems: The ‘Toyota Way’ and Labour–Management Relations

The Toyota production system (TPS) is spreading worldwide. This paper looks into the TPS and the associated transfer of the so-called ‘Toyota Way’ from a perspective of current and traditional human resource management (HRM) and labour–management relations within Toyota in Japan. Toyota considers that the foundation for competitive strength is ensuring that every employee understands and accepts the Toyota Way, and that it is necessary to expend much effort towards this end. For this purpose, Toyota has established a comprehensive in-house system of education and training, covering all aspects of labour–management relations and HRM. However, the Toyota Way's own characteristics exacerbate difficulties of transferral to US and European companies. By evaluating Toyota's motivational approach to management and training, and its labour–management relations, this paper elucidates the ‘Toyota Way’ underpinning the TPS. The three crucial aspects to Toyota's management are: (i) financial stimulation; (ii) management of personnel requirements; and (iii) labour management on the basis of behavioural science. A further important aspect of Toyota managerial development is the ad hoc training of key technical personnel. Toyota's ‘mutual trust and mutual responsibility’ approach to labour–management relations are also discussed.

Using value‐stream maps to improve leadership

Presents for the first time how value‐stream maps can be used to determine leadership beliefs, behaviors, and competencies. Current‐state value‐stream maps represent “conventional” management thinking and practices – what most business schools teach – while future‐state maps represent progressive “lean” management thinking and practices rooted in the Toyota management system. Current‐ and future‐state value‐stream maps for manufacturing and service business processes are used to illustrate the progression from belief to behavior to competency. The beliefs, behaviors, and competencies of leaders skilled in these two modes of management thinking and practice are shown to be remarkably different, and constitute an alternative and simpler route for identifying leadership problems and improving leadership effectiveness.

Is management education beneficial to society?

This paper examines whether or not US‐style management education is beneficial to society and presents a review of recent events, which suggest that management education must be improved. Two principal approaches to management education and resulting practice are presented and framed differently to better reflect and comprehend societal impacts. They are termed high waste and low waste, where waste is defined as activities and behaviors that do not add value and can be eliminated. High waste management practice, or conventional management, is what the majority business schools teach. Low waste management practice, rooted in the principles and practices of the Toyota Management System, is much less common in business school education. Proposes three improvements to management education that will deliver greater benefits to society while simultaneously promoting the interests of business.