Toyota - a precursor in management

In the previous post, I presented the management philosophies native to the country of the blooming cherry- Kaizen. Today, I would like to describe the approach to management of Toyota Motors, referring to more recent times.
Japan, as we can see, is the undoubted world leader in improving work processes. Toyota's approach to car production turned out to be a real revolution for the automotive industry. The system was created by the production manager, Taichi Ohno. This process is a key element of the Japanese management system. The basic rule of the Toyota production system is the constant commitment and willingness to constantly improve the quality of the manufactured product and the company.

Purpose of the Toyota Production System

The aim of the system is to increase production efficiency by eliminating waste. After the Second World War, the fledgling Japanese car industry suffered from low productivity.
There were several factors for this. First of all, the lack of raw materials, but also the lack of space to build large enough factories or hire a worker. Ohno was supposed to raise the level of productivity at Toyota to that of Ford factories.

As a result of the analysis, he concluded that workers in both factories work the same number of hours, which in turn gave him the premise that the main source of lower production is their lower labor productivity and ubiquitous waste. Since the 1980s, the Toyota production system has been the most efficient production system to date.
Ohno understood waste under the concept of several aspects:

• overproduction
• waiting time,
• transport problems,
• inefficient processing,
• inventory levels, and
• defects of manufactured products.

The philosophy of the system has become to eliminate or limit the influence of the above-mentioned factors. Reorganization of the company's structure in terms of the so-called The lean structure has resulted in tremendous gains in productivity. Although many of the largest companies have tried to implement the system in one form or another, few of them have managed to achieve Toyota results.

Toyota`s 4P

The Toyota 4P model consists of the following components:

• Philosophy - an enterprise is a tool used to create added value for customers, society, local community and partners.
• Process - achieving the desired results, such as long-term cost reduction and quality improvement, by following the right processes by leaders.
• Employees and partners - Challenging employees and partners of the company leads to increased value of the organization. This gives them a chance to develop skills and increase self-confidence.
• Problem solving - Constant solving of fundamental problems is the driving force behind the learning process of an organization

Every Toyota employee identifies strongly with the company. Harmony at work is also essential in building Toyota's success. In a corporation, the differences between individual levels of positions are somewhat blurred and not visible.
The lowest-level employees cooperate with each other for the common good of the company. Identification of employees with their team and the corporation itself, as well as their hard work to achieve the main goals, and their contribution and commitment are generously rewarded by Toyota.