BLOG 259 – How can your business learn from the Toyota production system?

Your business can learn a lot from Toyota.

Looking at Toyota’s model in regard to managing waste and continually improving their business, there is no doubt that your business could be stronger, more profitable and more successful by adopting some of their methods.

Don’t believe me?

Well, before you read on, ask yourself this:

“Are the processes and systems in my business more or less complex than building a car?”

I would posit that building a car is probably more complex, has more processes, more parts, more variables than your business. Or, at the very least, is no more complex.

So, if Toyota can work out how to make cars for less, with more flexibility than ever before, can’t you do the same in your business?

Toyota revolutionised the way cars were made in their factories.  In fact, they made their factories easier and cheaper to build and run AND built more flexibility into the way they build cars. And they are still doing this now…

Toyota even developed a new production system which enables them to shift from manufacturing 100,000 cars to 50,000 cars in a matter of minutes!

Some jobs are done the same way on every car, and other jobs vary from region to region; for example, colour, textiles and technology tastes are different in Italy, Britain and Korea.

Toyota know this and have built production lines accordingly and, as a consequence, are bringing costs down, boosting flexibility, increasing customer satisfaction and driving up profits.

I am sure there are tasks performed in your business the same way, day in and day out, and some tasks and procedures in your business will require different processes to others.

Perhaps it’s worth considering this approach to your businesses production workflow processes to help speed things up, build in flexibility AND better meet customer requirements.

The complexity and difficulty of doing this with car manufacturing is profound.  Having a fresh look at your businesses processes and workflow should be much simpler, don’t you think?