How Toyota Shares Its Culture with Other Manufacturers
Why would a company give away its泭secret sauce recipe for success? In Toyotas case, the answers easy: because its the right thing to do, according to Jamie Bonini, president of the Toyota Production System Support Center, Inc.
How it all began: The TSSC, which last year celebrated its 30th anniversary, is a nonprofit organization founded by the auto manufacturer in 1992 to help other companies improve their manufacturing processes using the proprietary Toyota Production System.
- In the early 90s, companies would come visit our factory in Georgetown, Kentucky, for tours and asked, How do you [manufacture] in the U.S. competitively? We said, Its TPS.
- TPS is Toyotas lean-manufacturing system, based on the Japanese philosophies of (which can be roughly translated as automation with a human touch) and Just-in-Time, which refers to producing only what is needed for the next process in a continuous flow.
- Toyota said yes to the growing number of requests from outside the company to share TPS principles and soon developed an entire center devoted to TPS teaching.
The substance: TSSC, which is subsidized by Toyota, provides companies with the training needed to implement TPS principles, which help boost efficiency, product quality and workplace safetywhile reducing costs and lead times.
- TPS emphasizes the elimination of waste, continuous improvement and respect for people, Bonini said.
The meaning of lean: TSSC has many long-term clients, some of which have been with the nonprofit for most of its three decades. The reason: TPS isnt a one-and-done, single-size system that can be superimposed on all organizations the same way, Bonini said.
- Lean has come to mean different things to different people, he continued. But this is what we mean by a Toyota production system: an organization-wide culture of highly engaged people who are solving problems and innovating to drive performance.
- When we work with a company, [our solution is] customized; its highly situational. What were trying to build in an organization is a culture. And to build it, it has to be nurtured, fortified. Thats why we like these longer-term engagements.泭
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