In 1937 a man named Kiichiro Toyoda set out to change manufacturing forever. He had 2 main beliefs to support it: “Continuous Improvement” and “Respect for People.” Kiichiro past the business through generations of his family.
The most important factors for success are patience, a focus on long-term rather than short-term results, reinvestment in people, product, and plant, and an unforgiving commitment to quality.
Today his company is the biggest company in the biggest manufacturing industry in the world. I am talking about Toyota.
In Toyota, it’s the people who bring the system to life: working, communicating, resolving issues, and growing together.
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The principles are organized in four broad categories:
1) A Long-Term Philosophy,
2) The Right Process Will Produce the Right Results (this utilizes many of the Toyota Production System tools),
3) Add Value to the Organization by Developing our People, and
4) Continuously Solving Root Problems Drives Organizational Learning.
We view errors as opportunities for learning. Rather than blaming individuals, the organization takes corrective actions and distributes knowledge about each experience broadly. Learning is a continuous company-wide process as superiors motivate and train subordinates; as predecessors do the same for successors; and as team members at all levels share knowledge with one another. —The Toyota Way
Toyota are the pioneers of lean manufacturing and have a factory that makes factories.
The term “lean”, is a systematic method for the elimination of waste within a manufacturing system. We want to be more like Toyota.