Is the Toyota Production System Responsible for Toyota’s Success?

In April of this year it was announced that Toyota had overtaken General Motors as the largest manufacturer of automobiles in the world in terms of vehicles sold. It seems that they will maintain this lead for some time to come. Interesting, a Toyota representative played down the achievement stating that they were focussed on meeting customer needs rather than winning a race.

The Toyota Production System and the Toyota Development System, initially developed in the 1940s and 1950s and publicized in the west in the 70s and 80s, were primary inspirations for the Lean and Agile movements. So is “The Toyota Way” responsible for Toyota’s success? According to a report that I overheard on BBC World Service Radio, yes, at least partially. They mentioned the Toyota Production System and stated that it is now used by most automobile manufacturers. Maybe the superficial details of the production system itself are even used by GM, but the Toyota Production System is based on much more which, according to anecdotes that I have heard, has not been adopted by GM.

The Toyota way is based on respect for their workers and embodies important principles such as self-organisation and adaptive processes that are so important when managing complex systems. It also applies the principle of eliminating waste, so if, for example, a machine needs to be moved to enable a team to do its job better, it will happen without jumping through hoops.

All of this does not sit comfortably with a prescriptive command and control approach, yet many Western organisations remain tied to such practices. In many cases, particularly when there is a crisis, the instinct of Western organisations (including governments) is to add additional controls to their processes (in the form of rules, laws etc.). This is often the opposite of what is required – give people the resources that they need, make them feel that they are truly valued and respected and they will deliver the results.

On Key

Related Posts

man in gray sweater standing in front of his colleagues

The Three Pillars of Scrum

Scrum “by the book” is very simple and it’s a great place to start, but teams that want to get outstanding results understand the journey has only just begun. The three pillars model can help your team on this journey by allowing you to maximise the effectiveness of each part of Scrum.

The three pillars of Scrum are transparency, inspection and adaptation. They can be used to “inspect and adapt” your Scrum implementation and set you and your team on the path to really excellent Scrum.

measuring guitar pick

Can Agile be Measured?

Measuring Agile Transformations Organisations run their agile transformations with teams staffed with trainers and coaches. They often track the progress of their work through the

Scaling Agile Meetup

We’ve moved our Scaling Agile Lean Coffee to the meetup.com platform. You can join the group here:

https://www.meetup.com/scaling-agile-meetup/

The upcoming events will be published in the group. At the time of writing, the next event is 12th May at 18:00 BST, 19:00 CEST. There is always a lively discussion so why not bring your burning topic on agile transformation or scaling agile to the group? It’s free to join.

Register your interest in ELCAS-approved training with ScrumCenter