THE TOYOTA WAY REFLECTION
Here I will answer three questions:
Needless to say, manufacturing is among the vital activities contributing to one country’s development today. Numerous methodologies and approaches have been brought in to optimize the operation system, create more competencies, and constantly meet the rapidly changing demands of customers. The typical model among all is the Toyota Production System (TPS) which may also be referred to as lean manufacturing - the most successful system among industrialized countries (Salimu, 2021).
As an engineering student after having initial approaches to the Toyota Way, I was so much amazed at how a system working toward customers' values would be. Generally, it starts with the philosophy of long-term benefits before anything else. That long-term thinking of Toyota was not the sustainable growth of the company but the reinvestment and value-adding to customers and society. Meanwhile, according to Liker, there is a prevailing belief of people citing self-interests as the engine for economic growth (2020). They believe pursuing self-interests stimulates innovation and business competencies. However, the dark side of numerous people being made use of and incurring adverse losses is inevitable. This can be well illustrated by the collapse of FTX when the use of investors' money was not transparent as well as the FLC scandals in which the company issued bonds that were against the law to milk from investors. Since I acknowledge the importance of money for motivating business activity and innovation, the perception of living for social investment and customer value-adding of the Toyota Way is so much embraced.
The Toyota Production System (TPS) is constructed with numerous in-depth research and applications of lean tools. The aim is to eliminate waste and practically non-adding activities. These lean tools admittedly have a powerful impact on companies’ performances, resulting in numerous improvements and leaps in profits namely the positive environmental outcomes in automotive industries in Morocco (Y. Bouazza et al., 2021), the increase of productivity of Volvo (H. Rajuvadan Premkumar et al., 2012) and Caterpillar’s profit (IvyPanda, 2021). However, lean is about people after all. According to Liker (2020), Toyota Production System is designed to provide tools for people to improve their work continually. Not many organizations see the lean method as how it should be. Mostly, it is referred to as a set of tools to improve manufacturing and operations. While doing the research for this report, I found that many results mentioned the outcomes of how efficiency changed only, not how people and the philosophy are actually learned and applied. In research from Case, if a company has 100 employees and improves efficiency by 15%, the workload now will be handled by only 85 people and the rest who are no longer required will be let go, answered by former GE CEO Jack Welch, once known as Neutron Jack (2019). In the meanwhile, The Toyota way means more dependence on people, not less. From my perspective, manufacturers who apply lean have demonstrated excellent results when it comes to utilizing the tools and procedures but regarding actually living the philosophy itself which means every employee can have the DNA of the organization and are continually learning together to add value to the customers seems to be a hard mission. There are some reasons namely lack of leadership, narrow focus solely on cost reduction, ineffective teamwork, and no structural change explain the lean implementation failure in the research of Art Byrne (2017). But successful implementation does not bring exactly 100% of the 4P model of Toyota way, it is customized instead and becomes for example Volvo Production System and Nike Productions System.
In my opinion, there is no such thing as a successful or fail recipe. It’s simply whether the ideas, the objectives, and the execution are suitable for the current situation. I believe it works similarly to the natural selection theory. Therefore, if the Toyota principles themselves become so sophisticated and even turn into a problem for an organization, it may not be considered to be a solution for that operation anymore. Besides, it consists of thousands of factors to drive the economy of the world resulting in thousands of philosophies, methodologies, and systems combined from them. Toyota way is therefore not the only one to bring success. In addition, the definition of success varies based on different perspectives due to distinct history, objectives, religion, culture, etc. For example, society today has evolved beyond its basic need for survival and is now more concerned with long-term and sustainable usage resulting in the appearance of green consumption. Green consumption generally focuses on minimizing ecological impact, moderate their consumption, being more conscious of the produced waste, and opting for clean and renewable energy according to Haider et al. (2022). To keep up with consumer trends, organizations have changed their operations in response to demand. Unfortunately, aiming at green manufacturing does not equal waste reduction and value-adding as Toyota way does but rather ecological impact reduction which may incur more cost. Based on the principles of lean, this has been deeply violating its core philosophy, however, that type of system is not considered to be a failure as it has met what customers desire. Overall, in my opinion, based on what aspects and how to convert the company value proposition to customers an organization want that bring success to themselves. As I believe all objective is to serve society and it is gorgeous. Technology achievements thereby become powerful tools to be utilized and contribute to that success.
Applying lean involves changing a series of departments across the company vertically and horizontally including processes, philosophy, individual attitudes, and perspectives according to Wangwacharakul et al. (2014). Therefore, not only the tools and leadership training important but also the local culture should be considered to fully spread the spirit of lean philosophy throughout the company. The lean toolkit is known to be created in Japan which is largely influenced by its culture, religion, and traditions. Hence, Sweden companies may confront numerous difficulties to apply lean as these aspects may not come naturally to people who are from outside the region of Japan not to mention lean is less about tools and more about people. Fortunately, there is research that cites some Swedish characteristics as competitive advantages regarding adopting a lean way of working. For example, Ingvar Ritzén (2019) has stated that Sweden stands out for deep-rooted ideas of egalitarianism, equal human values, consensus decision-making, equality of men and women, flat management, and a tax and salary system in which pay differentials are unbelievably low in international comparison. In addition, the coaching and facilitating management of high-level administrators encourage staff involvement and self-development in every project which is very in response to the learning organization principle of Toyota way. But to be fair, there also exists differences. Regarding lean product development of Wangwacharakul et al. (2014) once criticized that it is all related to “people” which is the main distinguishing factor including value definition, control system, leadership, development team, and knowledge management. Some lean principles are not built into Swedish values and behavior. For example, while the Japanese are more group-oriented and use culture as a tool to support excellence and relentless improvement, the Swedish embrace self-discipline and respect for individuals due to their view on equality. Furthermore, in the research of Wangwacharakul et al., rules direct the operation but it is the people's choice to be directed by rules when needed in the corporation. This leads to a higher level of creativity and acceptance of changes in Sweden compared to Japan. However, Lean implementation in any organization should be designed and executed based on its characteristics so that every side and dimension of the philosophy are taken advantage of and the companies’ good values are preserved and developed. Due to this explanation, after the Toyota way implementation, the philosophy has been renamed so that it fits best with the organization. For example, the Volvo Group has developed their Volvo Production System (VPS) model for use in 60 plants worldwide though they share the same objective as Toyota according to Wangwacharakul et al. (2014).
To sum up, despite limited time for research, I very much enjoyed all the things I discovered while doing the report. I even can see the philosophy of adding value to a society near me as well. For example, in every project, lesson, and assignment at Jonkoping University, students and lecturers always consider sustainability. Or the Linnaeus Palme scholarship that I am awarded gives me the chance to approach and acquire higher education and more developing thinking for long-term relationships with developing countries. More or less, the Toyota way has inspired me with its thinking and not only at the manufacturing level but in daily life as well for example the 5S, the leadership, the people.???
References
Art Byrne. (April 25, 2017). Ask Art: Why do so few companies that implement lean do it successfully?. Retrieved October 15, 2022, from https://www.lean.org/the-lean-post/articles/ask-art-why-do-so-few-companies-that-implement-lean-do-it-successfully/
Bouazza,Y.,Lajjam,A. & Dkhissi,B.(2021).The Impact of Lean Manufacturing on Enviromental Performance in Moroccan Automotive Industry. Management Systems in Production Engineering,29(3) 184-192. https://doi.org/10.2478/mspe-2021-0023
Case, B. F. A. J. (2019, February 19). The Missing Link: Why Lean So Often Fails. Forbes. Retrieved October 15, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/fotschcase/2019/02/19/the-missing-link-why-lean-so-often-fails/?sh=77fb25ff3695
Haider, Murtaza & Shannon, Randall & Moschis, George. (2022). Sustainable Consumption Research and the Role of Marketing: A Review of the Literature (1976-2021). Sustainability. 14. 10.3390/su14073999.
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Harlin, Ulrika & Wangwacharakul, Promporn & Berglund, Martina & Gullander, Per. (2014). Cultural Aspects when Implementing Lean Production and Lean Product Development - Experiences from a Swedish Perspective. Quality Innovation Prosperity. 18. 321. 10.12776/QIP.V18I1.321.
IvyPanda. (2021, July 20).?Toyota, Caterpillar, Intel and Ford: Lean Manufacturing. Retrieved from https://ivypanda.com/essays/toyota-caterpillar-intel-and-ford-lean-manufacturing/
Liker, J.K. (2020). The Toyota Way, 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer. McGraw-Hill, New York.
Ljungblom, Mia. (2022). Respect for People Developing alternative understandings and relationships to ethics, leadership, and culture in Lean implementations.
Thanh, D. (2022, June 27). Province to spend $9 mln on Cua Dai beach embankments. VnExpress International – Latest News, Business, Travel and Analysis From Vietnam. Retrieved October 13, 2022, from https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/quang-nam-to-spend-9-mln-on-cua-dai-beach-embankments-4480739.html
Rajuvadan Premkumar, H., & Vedapatti Ranganathan, H. (2012). Improving Supply Chain Performance through Lean and Green: A study at Volvo group in India and Sweden (Dissertation). Retrieved from https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-14765
Ritzén, I. (2019, October 2). Does Sweden have a competitive edge in lean and agile? Retrieved October 17, 2022, from https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/does-sweden-have-competitive-edge-lean-agile-ingvar-ritz%C3%A9n/
Salimu, A. (2021, October 6). Inside The Toyota Production System (TPS). Retrieved October 13, 2022, from https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/inside-toyota-production-system-tps-andrew-salimu/
Authors: Linh Luong
Supervisor: Dr. Roy Andersson
J?nk?ping, September 2022