Indra’s Drishtikona (Viewpoint)

Toyota- an example of manufacturing excellence

Posted : February 21, 2005 at 6:57 pm [IST]

Toyota has already left behind Ford as the second largest carmaker of the world. Perhaps in next 2-3 years it will overtake GM too and become the Number 1.Toyota runs 47 plants in 26 overseas markets and generates more than 70% of its profit overseas. It will be adding more capacity in different locations to capture 15% of the global auto market before the end of the decade. What are the secrets of this growth when others are faltering? How much is the TPS (Toyota Production System responsible for its success?

Toyota is changing its strategy of manufacturing too. It now views the world as a single integrated market. It is hatching plan to launch models simultaneously around the globe with parts manufactured in one country designed for use in vehicles assembled in another. Toyota provides example for all the companies in manufacturing sectors.

Toyota production system is based largely on kaizen, often translated as continuous improvement. Engineers, managers, and line workers collaborate continually to systemize production tasks and identify incremental changes to make work go more smoothly.

Some guiding principles are:
· Strive to keep inventories as close to zero as possible.
· Minimize costs but also ferret out inefficiencies the moment they occur.
· Give the workers the authority to stop the process and summon assistance at the first sign of trouble.

A ballet of astonishing precision, enhanced by a myriad of tiny improvements can be seen on the factory floor.
Along one segment of the line, worker, fastening parts beneath the dashboard straddles mechanized chairs that enable them to bounce in and out of the passenger compartment with a minimum of squatting and bending. At another, robots guide air conditioners into optimum position for manual installation. Further on, engineers have fashioned a mechanism of coils and magnets to lift bolts from a parts bin in the exact size and sequence required.

Auto industry all over the world has widely emulated the kaizen approach, but getting it rightly is harder than it looks. Toyota s methods cant be replicated through observation alone. Toyota struggles to make the system work effectively. Toyota Way can only be grasped through constant practice on the factory floor under the tutelage of an experienced production master. It requires the proper mindset as well as discipline and hard work.

As Toyota keeps growing fast, will it be able to maintain the discipline of Kaizen or will kaizen be lost somewhere on this path of growth? How should Toyota maintain the pace without diluting its corporate DNA? Toyota watchers and manufacturing managers all over the world have these questions in their mind. Toyota is also taking measures to grow without giving up its philosophy of manufacturing excellence.

Recently created Global production Center in Toyota City is an effort to speed up the transmission of skills on the factory floor.

Training starts with watching of visual manuals illustrating basic production techniques. It is enhanced further and perfected by actual practice under the close eyes of masters. At the Center one can see how it is done. At Screw Grommet Insertion Station, a worker struggles to keep pace with a computer. At another Station, the worker perfecting body paintingtechniques practices a series of deep knee bends holding spray guns filled with water. At Cylinder Insertion Station, workers are given one minute to fit a sequence of progressively larger metal cylinders into a row of corresponding holes. It looks easy but hardly any succeed in first attempt. However, the trainer can complete the sequence in 24 seconds. He shows novices how to position the feet, distribute the body weight, and hold each cylinder to get it right.

Earlier Toyota took a dim view of foreign MBA programs, but now with its presence globally it has changed its view and very recently established the Toyota Institute for an in-house leadership development program run in partnership with Wharton School.
Indian manufacturing sector has also emulated Toyota Production Systems, but it must accept it as a way of life to excel and compete and inculcate it in every employee.It must keep on training and educating its employees

With my exposure to Japanese manufacturing companies, I keep on talking about kaizen in every walk of life. The basic principles of kaizen along with team working must get built up in the education system of the country.

- Indra

Category: Manufacturing |