A Profile of Toyota’s Production System - Report Writing Management Assignment Help

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Early History 

Kiichiro Toyoda founded the Toyota Motor Company in 1937.1 The company, headquartered in Toyota City, Japan, grew to a market capitalization of $138 billion by early 2010,2 number 10 on the Fortune Global 500. It was the largest car company in the world,3 having produced 8.9 million vehicles worldwide in 2008.4 

Before founding the company, Toyoda was denied the opportunity to head his family’s mechanical loom business. Looking for alternatives, he set his sights on building cars. He attracted his cousin, Eiji Toyoda, to be his understudy and partner.5 They were both impressed by the industrial might of US companies during the war and wanted to see them in operation. In the early 1950s, Eiji Toyoda traveled to America in order to study Ford’s immense River Rouge plant just outside Detroit, Mich. He was impressed by the size of the plant but noted many inefficiencies,6 including large amounts of both inventory and rework to fix production mistakes.7 Some good did come from this trip, but it was from a visit to a Piggly Wiggly supermarket. “ [T]he delegation was inspired by how the supermarket only reordered and restocked goods once they had been bought by customers.”8 This would become the kanban system, part of the inventory restocking policy that would become world-renowned. 

The TPS 

While growing the company in Japan between 1949 and 1975, Toyota management—primarily Taiichi Ohno, Shigeo Shingo, and Eiji Toyoda9—worked on improving the company’s logistics and production processes, especially as they related to minimizing inventory, involving employees in the process of managing their jobs, and defining the manufacturing process so that it could handle multiple products easily.10 The result of their work became known around the world as the Toyota Production System (TPS). 

TPS is “an integrated socio-technical system...that comprises [Toyota’s] management philosophy and practices. The TPS organizes manufacturing and logistics for the automobile manufacturer, including interaction with suppliers and customers.”11 It has two foundational concepts:

1. “One of these is the ‘just-in-time production,’ an especially important factor in an assembly industry such as automotive manufacturing. In this type of production, ‘only the necessary products, at the necessary time, in the necessary quantity’ are manufactured, and in addition, the stock on hand is held to a minimum. 

2. “Second...is the ‘respect-for-human’ system where the workers are allowed to display in full their capabilities through active participation in running and improving their own workshops.”12 

The Toyota Production System 

1. Reduced setup times for equipment and people. 

2. Small-lot production: Usually allows for smaller inventories, smaller machines, smaller lead times, and less cost. 

3. Employee involvement and empowerment. 

4. Quality at the source: Correct errors as soon as possible. Any worker can stop the entire line if necessary. 

5. Equipment maintenance: Machine operators are trained to also do basic maintenance since they can see the problem before anyone else. 

6. Pull production: The amount of product produced is specified by the amount needed immediately in the next stage. Kanbans are usually used here. 

7. Supplier involvement: Suppliers are partners, and are integral parts of the overall production process. 

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