the toyota way book review - jeffrey k liker

8/7/2019 The Toyota Way Book Review - Jeffrey K Liker

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Jeffrey K. Liker, the author of The Toyota Way is professor of Industrial and

Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan. He is also the co -founder and

director of the Japan Technology Management Program Lean Product Development

Certificate programs.

Liker believes that an ultimate success can be achieved by using tools such as Just -

In-Time (JIT), one piece flow, jidoka and heidunka, and the philosophy of the Toyota

Way. Most of the tools in Toyota Production System (TPS) are focused on the

behavior of eliminating non-value added waste (muda) in business and

manufacturing processes. These mudas can be derived as below :

1. Overproduction;2. Waiting time (for next steps, tools, parts etc);3. Unnecessary transport of work in progress;4. Overprocessing / incorrect processing;5. Excess inventory;6. Unnecessary movement;7. Defects in products or machines;8. Unused employee creativity.

TPS is all about applying the principles of The Toyota Way in order to encourage,

support and give workers the opportunity to contribute to the improvement of the

systems and to themselves. It is a culture more than efficiency and improvement

techniques. There are 14 principles that makes up the Toyota Way and Liker divided

them into four easy-to-understand categories, Philosophy, Process, People/partners

and Problem Solving :

No. Explanation

Philosophy

Principle 1Base all management decisions on a long term philosophy even at the expense of short term

financial goals.

Process

Principle 2 Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface.

Principle 3 Use pull systems to avoid overproduction.

Principle 4 Level out the workload (heijunka). Work like the tortoise, not the hare.

Principle 5 Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time.

Principle 6Standardized tasks are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee

empowerment.

Principle 7 Use visual control so no problems are hidden (such as 5S program).

People/partners

Principle 8Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes. Add

value to the organization by developing your people and partners.

Principle 9 Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy and teach it to others.

Principle 10 Develop exceptional people and teams who follow the companys philosophy.

Principle 11Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping

them to improve.



No. Explanation

Problem Solving

Principle 12 Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation (genchi genbutsu).

Principle 13Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options, and implement

decisions rapidly.

Principle 14Become a learning organization through relentless reflection (hansei) and continuous

improvement (kaizen).

Everyone in Toyota holds to the same philosophy, to generate value for the

customer, society and the economy. Thus, they strive to be responsible, to act with

self-reliance and improve skills that enable them to produce added value. Toyota

also implemented a kind of one -piece flow to the production line or information

management which is able to expose any inefficiencies or defects that demand

immediate attention that motivates everyone to fix the problems. This is an appr oach

that builds up quality, creates flexibility and results in optimum productivity.

Toyota always replenish their stock based on usage rate. This is the basic principle

of JIT that minimizes work in progress and avoiding keeping a large inventory by

stocking small amounts on short time interval. This habit also contributes to heijunka.

Toyota levels out both volume and product mix of all manufacturing and processes.

Instead of building products based on customer¶s demand, they take the total

amount of orders in a specified period and levels them so the same amount and

design are made each day in a predictable sequence, spreading out different product

types and levelling volume. Toyota believes that quality should be built in, thus

devices are build into machines to detect any abnormalities and automatically stop

an operation. Meanwhile , in the case of human, every team member has the

responsibility to stop the line everytime something is out of standard. As the

foundation for flow and pull, the company uses stable, repeatable methods

everywhere to maintain the predictabilty, regular timing and regular output of its

process. By using these standardized practices, it can capture the accumulated

learning about a process up to a point and allows individuals to e merge from thoseexecuting the process and improve upon the standard.

Visual control refers to the design of JIT information of all kinds, integrated into the

process of value-added work in order to ensure fast execution of operations and

processes. Included in this is the 5S program (sort, straighten, shine, standardize

and sustain) which support a smooth flow and help make problems visible. At



Toyota, new technology is introduced only after it has been thoroughly examined and

tested to ensure it adds value to the process and does not conflict with the principles

of valuing people over system and eliminating waste. If only it meets all these

criteria, it will be used to support continuos flow in the production process and help

employees perform better. Every leader in the company has to deeply understands

and live the philosophy by demonstrating and understanding how work gets done so

that it can create the environment for a learning organization and lay the foundation

for genuine long term success. Toyota from time to time encourages its employee to

work right and to strive for daily improvement by building a system that conforms to

the principle of developing exceptional people and teams who respect the company¶s

philosophy. Its about making the training o f a bunch of exceptional people and work

groups that integrates the social system with the technical system.

In choosing partners and suppliers, Toyota tends to choose those who are solid

enough and grow together with them for long term benefit. New suppli ers have to

prove their sincerity and commitment to Toyota¶s high perfomance standard s in

quality, cost and delivery before it can be adopted into the Toyota family. Genshi

genbutsu means involvement in every aspect to thoroughly understand the situation.

People in Toyota go down to the ground and see for themselves. Its the factor that

distinguishes the Toyota Way from other management approaches. Toyota is a true

learning organization. It tends to push everyone to think and grow together through aprocess in which mistakes are considered a medium for learning. This involves

perceiving the problem, clarifying it, determining the root cause, providing effective

countermeasures, evaluating the results and standardizing the approach. Only then

the new knowledge is transferred to the right people at the right time to ensure the

company¶s continuous learning culture.

As a summary, transitioning into The Toyota Way can be achieved by doing changes

in the technical system, followed quickly by cultural change. Learn by doing first and

training second. Use kaizen workshops to teach and make rapid changes. Be

opportunistic in identifying opportunities for making big financial impacts. Hire and

develop lean leaders and create a succession system, and use experts for get ting

quick results.

the toyota way book review - jeffrey k liker

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