Development Of Toyota Unique Toyota Production System Information Technology Essay

Kaizen means change for the better or continuous improvement. Kaizen is a very simple concept, from two Japanese characters “Kai” meaning change and “Zen” meaning good. The creator of the concept of kaizen is a Dr. W. Edwards Deming, an American statistician who made many visits to Japan in the years following World War II. Dr. Deming’s work was so widely regarded as the driving force behind the resurgence of the Japanese economy during this time that one of Japan’s most coveted awards was later named the Deming Prize.

3.2 EXAMPLE OF KAIZEN

In 1950 Toyota implemented quality circles leading to the development of Toyota unique “Toyota Production System”. Toyota System is a continuous improvement in quality, technology, processes, company culture, productivity, safety and leadership. These continual small improvements add up to major benefits. For example, faster delivery, lower costs, and greater customer satisfaction. In 1986 Masaaki Imai introduced to the Western world the Japanese term Kaizen and made it famous through his book (kaizen) The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success. Translated in fourteen languages, Kaizen became a fad the world over.

In 1997 Imai introduced an evolved form of Kaizen in his book Gemba Kaizen: A Commonsense, Low-Cost Approach to Management, to reassert the importance of the shop floor in bringing about continual improvement in an organization. In essence, that translates into something of a corporate ‘back to basics’ philosophy. Gemba is where the product is actually manufactured, which could mean the assembly line in a manufacturing plant or the place where employees interact with customers in the service sector. It is “the place where the real work is done”, as Imai likes to put it.

Get Help With Your Essay

If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help!
Find out more about our Essay Writing Service

Reference : kaizen.pdf

3.3 HISTORY OF KAIZEN

After World War II, U.S. occupation forces carried by the member States to help to rebuild Japan’s industry in order to help restore the Japanese. Public Communications Section (CCS) developed a management training program that provides statistical control methods as part of the overall material. This course was developed and taught by Homer Sarasohn and Charles Protzman in 1949 and 1950.As with the Marshall Plan in Europe, General MacArthur asked a number of leading experts from the U.S. to visit Japan and advise them on how to proceed with the rebuilding process. As history would have it, one of these experts was Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Deming was a statistician with experience in census work, so he came to Japan to set up a census. While in Japan, he noticed some of the difficulties being experienced by some of the newly emerging industries. Many Japanese manufacturers were faced with huge difficulties stemming from a lack of investment funds, raw materials, and components, and from the low morale of the nation and the workforce. Based on his recent experience in reducing waste in U.S. war manufacture, he began to offer his advice. By the mid 1950s, he was a regular visitor to Japan. He taught Japanese businesses to concentrate their attention on processes rather than results; concentrate the efforts of everyone in the organization on continually improving imperfection at every stage of the process. By the 1970s many Japanese organizations had embraced Deming’s advice and were very quickly enjoying the benefits of their actions. Most notable is the Toyota Production System.

Despite the fact that much of the foundation of continuous management and other Japanese concepts originated in the U.S. Western firms showed little interest until the late 1970s and early 1980s. By then the success of Japanese companies caused other firms to begin to reexamine their own approaches. Kaizen began to emerge in the U.S. concurrent along with the increasing popularity and use of Japanese techniques. In some organizations, quality circles have evolved into continuous improvement teams with considerably more authority and empowerment than is typically given to quality circles. In fact, management consultants in the West have tended to use the term kaizen to embrace a wide range of management practices primarily regarded as Japanese and responsible for making Japanese companies strong in the areas of continual improvement rather than innovation.

Reference : Kaizen.pdf

3.4 FUNCTION OF KAIZEN

1. Create constancy of purpose for improvement of product and service with the aim to become competitive.

2. Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. Western management must awaken to the challenge.

3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place.

4. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price. Move toward a single supplier for any one item, based on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.

5. Improvement constantly and forever every process for planning, production, and service. Improve quality and productivity and thus constantly decrease costs.

6. Institute training on the job. This should be a part of everyone’s daily activities.

7. Adopt and institute leadership. The aim of supervision should be to help people, machines, and gadgets to do a better job. Supervision of management is in need of overhaul as well as supervision of production workers.

8. Drive out fear so that everyone may work effectively for the company because they want it to succeed.

9. Break down barriers between staff areas and departments. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team to foresee problems.

10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the workforce asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity.

Reference : kaizen.pdf

11. Eliminate numerical quotas for the workforce and numerical goals for management.

12. Remove barriers that rob people of pride in workmanship eliminate the annual rating or merit system.

13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement for everyone.

14. Put everyone in the company to work to accomplish the transformation.

3.5 THE ADVANTAGES OF KAIZEN

Kaizen can useful in any company or industry approach to problem solving. The advantage of kaizen in company is the problems are identified at source and resolved. Besides that, small improvements which are realized can add up to major benefits for the business. We can see the improvement that lead to changes in the business quality, cost and delivery of products. This is means a greater level of customer satisfaction and business growth. By involving employees in looking at their environment to bring about change, results in improved morale as people begin to find work easier and more enjoyable.

The major benefit of kaizen is to teach the managers to see the work of organization as a unified system rather than as a collection of specialties. At one level, kaizen recognized that each specialist in an organization may be performing according to their job description even though the organization as a whole is faltering. At another level, he recognized that even if a firm and all of its constituent specialists were producing state-of-the-art quality at low cost, a well-organized and well-managed firm should be able to improve continually on its performance. Following Kaizen, the continuous improvement perspective goes far beyond the limited realm of problem solving that we are studying here.

Reference: http://www.businessballs.com/qualitymanagement.htm

It concentrates attention on the processes and activity is centered on getting the process right. Kaizen is a method for active problem solving. It will let us know the wrong thing and we will not do it again after that. It rewards effort as well as achievement. It acts as a motivator for building quality in to product and eliminates the need of inspection. The kaizen can be use in company to helps the company to breakdown departmental barriers and to reduce waste and superfluous activity which are non-visible to management. All that is required is a believing heart, and a strong will. The desire to improve, once caught, will be self-perpetuating when the benefits of that improvement become visible. People must believe in themselves and their ability to do better. However, if one does not try, changes are that the rut merely grows deeper and more difficult to get out of.

The other advantage of Kaizen is a:

Constant effort to improve industrial relations.

Emphasis on training & education of workers.

Developing informal leader among the worker.

Formatting of small group activities such as quality control (QC) circles.

Support & recognition for workers “KAIZEN” effort.

Conscious effort for making the workplace a place where worker can pursue life goals.

Bringing social life into the workshop as much as practical.

Training supervisor so that they can communicate better & create a more positive involvement with worker.

Bringing discipline to the workshop.

3.6 THE DISADVANTAGE OF KAIZEN

Initially there is no time for deep thought and prolonged discussion. Although small problems can be eliminated quickly, there is also the possibility that the big picture is lost in the shuffle. Overall functionality may suffer as a result of using a narrow perspective. Besides that, kaizen is not a new idea already. In this era of globalization, many companies know about the theory of Kaizen. However the Indian industries are still shy of exploiting its full potential. Then, Kaizen is getting people to think in the long term. It convincing people that quality is not costly, but actually saves money, time and effort. It is too much involvement needed from management but manager work already no matter it is hard work.

Reference: http://www.businessballs.com/qualitymanagement.htm

4. COMPARISON OF KAIZEN WITH OTHER THEORY

4.1 DEFINITION

4.1.1 DEFINITION TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a comprehensive and structured approach to organizational management that seeks to improve the quality of products and services through ongoing refinements in response to continuous feedback. Total Quality Management has no specific goals or endpoints at which management can aim. Basically, the goal of TQM is to always become “better,” an objective that can become both a blessing and a curse as it continually inspires both motivation and frustration.

4.1.2 DEFINITION ISO 9000

ISO 9000 is an internationally recognized standard for business processes intended to maintain quality management. The ISO 9000 standards apply to all types of organizations, large and small. The standards required, standard language for documenting quality processes, system to manage evidence that these practices are instituted throughout an organization, and third-party auditing to review, certify, and maintain certification of organizations.

4.1.3 DEFINITION LEAN MANUFACTURING

Lean manufacturing is an approach to manufacturing that seeks to reduce the cycle time of processes, increase flexibility and improve quality. Lean approach help to eliminate waste in all its forms. That also satisfying your customers consistently through producing what they want, when they want it, by pulling it from the value stream using the minimum amount of resources through respecting and involving all of your employees in a continual process of improvement.

Reference: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/qualitymanagement.html#ixzz12jBwq1cF

4.1.4 DEFINITION QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Quality management is all management activities and functions involved in determination of quality policy and its implementation through means such as quality planning and quality assurance including quality control. Quality management is based upon heuristic and ad hoc methods, based on previous experience. Note that there is nothing wrong with that, and it can be deployed very successfully. The quality management methodology has its roots in traditional quality control in production, where conformance to requirements is the major point of interest.

4.1.5 DEFINITION SIX SIGMA

Six Sigma is certainly concerned with quality as well, it extends its focus to other issues such as product cycle time and cost. Because of this difference, Six Sigma can be much more complex to implement but also can create farther-reaching benefits. Six Sigma attempts to fix this problem by creating specific areas to target for improvement. In of general statements about quality improvement, the Six Sigma philosophy pinpoints sectors of specialized focus.

4.2 DIFFERENCES

4.2.1 DIFFERENCES OF KAIZEN AND TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Kaizen could be deployed as one of those reference points. The kaizen will improve constantly and forever and would infer the need for some sort of continuous improvement methodology.

TQM are provides guidance that an organization can reference when designing their processes and operations.

Reference:

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/qualitymanagement.html#ixzz12jBwq1cF

4.2.2 DIFFERENCE OF KAIZEN AND ISO9000

Kaizen and its continuous improvement methodologies offer a direct method that has a fighting chance to improve quality of business processes.

ISO 9000 is another process that uses indirect methods to modify quality, but being indirect, has no guarantee of having any effect in good, bad or indifferent on the quality of an organization.

4.2.3 DIFFERENCE OF KAIZEN AND LEAN MANUFACTURING

Kaizen also offers a direct approach to improving an existing system, through the application of continuous improvement, using a human based approach. Although Kaizen does not provide details to every specific situation, it does offer the optimism that an organization will operate better if process improvements are continuously attempted and applied.

Lean Manufacturing offers a direct approach to improving quality in an existing system, through process design changes that are aimed at reducing waste. It also imposes the constraint that the business processes should be driven by customer demand, and provides the hint that a process runs with better quality when it can be run at a consistent rate according the time.

4.2.4 DIFFERENCE OF KAIZEN AND QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Kaizen we have a methodology that brings us improvement ideas that are related more towards the people running the processes, and allowing them input into the design and improvement of those processes. Kaizen and its continuous improvement methodologies offer a direct method that has a fighting chance to improve quality of business processes.

Quality Management is methodology, driven by what works best based upon previous trial and error experience. Quality Management does have some formal methods that are derived from its basis of Quality Control and Quality Assurance. Quality Management uses indirect methods to maintain and possibly improve the quality of business processes.

Reference: What Is the Difference Between Kaizen & Six Sigma? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/facts_5130008_difference-between-kaizen-six-sigma.html#ixzz12JUesZg0

4.2.5 DIFFERENCE OF KAIZEN AND SIX SIGMA

Kaizen offers a somewhat direct approach to improving an existing system, through the application of continuous improvement, using a human-based approach. Although Kaizen does not provide details to every specific situation, it does offer the optimism that an organization will operate better if process improvements are continuously attempted and applied.

Six Sigma offers a more direct approach to improving an existing system, through the disciplined application of continuous improvement, using a statistical approach applied using general systems theory. Six Sigma does provide a framework in which to apply the continuous improvement.

Reference: What Is the Difference Between Kaizen & Six Sigma? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/facts_5130008_difference-between-kaizen-six-sigma.html#ixzz12JUesZg0

5. HOW TO PRACTICE KAIZEN IN ORGANIZATION

5.1 INTRODUCTION OF COMPANY THAT PRACTICE KAIZEN– TOYOTA

The oil crisis of the autumn of 1973, had led public to give a great attention to Toyota production system. The oil crisis had influence on government, industry, and even personal lifestyles. Japanese economy growth slid to zero, and entire industrial sector bring profound panic in Japan. Most companies are facing troubles. In contrast, Toyota was able to hold onto its profit position (The Anatomy of Japanese Business, 1984, by Sato/ Hoshino). The success of Toyota hold on it profit position started the miracles of Kaizen.

5.2 WHY TOYOTA?

The example of Kaizen management is Toyota because it had the most systematic and strongest cost management under which kaizen activities were organized. The Toyota Production System (TPS) use organizational techniques of production such as “just-in-time” and “Jidôka” (making machine tools and production lines autonomous, that is, they stop automatically when an anomaly occurs) to keeping up and reducing production costs as well as improving product quality.

5.3 HISTORY OF TOYOTA

The story of the kaizen miracle started in the 1930s. Sakichi toyoda, founder of toyota, which manufactured automatic looms at the time, liked to tell his co-workers: “open the window; it is a big world out there”.

In 1950 toyota implemented quality circles leading to the development of toyota’s unique “toyota production system”. Toyota system is a system of continuous improvement in quality, technology, processes, company culture, productivity, safety and leadership.

These continual small improvements (kaizen) add up to major benefits. They result, for example, in: faster delivery, lower costs, and greater customer satisfaction. 

(from toyota production system terminology on their georgetown plant website – nov 2003: “kaizen, or continuous improvement, is the hallmark of the toyota production system. The primary objectives are to identify and eliminate “muda,” or waste in all areas, including the production process. “kaizen” also strives to ensure quality and safety. Its key elements emphasize making a task simpler and easier to perform, re-engineering processes to accommodate the physical demands on team members, increasing the speed and efficiency of the work process, maintaining a safe work environment, and constantly improving the product quality”)

In 1986 Masaaki Imai introduced to the Western world the Japanese term Kaizen and made it famous through his book, Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success. Translated in fourteen languages, Kaizen became a fad the world over.

In 1997 Imai introduced an evolved form of Kaizen in his book Gemba Kaizen: A Commonsense, Low-Cost Approach to Management, to reassert the importance of the shop floor in bringing about continual improvement in an organization. In essence, that translates into something of a corporate ‘back to basics’ philosophy. Gemba is where the product is actually manufactured, which could mean the assembly line in a manufacturing plant or the place where employees interact with customers in the service sector. It is “the place where the real work is done”, as Imai likes to put it.

Reference : (The Anatomy of Japanese Business, 1984, by Sato/ Hoshino)

5.4 HOW TOYOTA IMPLEMENT KAIZEN?

Kaizen was adopted by Toyota Motor Corporation to improve productivity and efficiency in its production systems. Toyota encountered labor crisis in the early 1990s which is labor shortage and an aging work force. The company used Kaizen to modify its assembly line and wage systems in order to make them human friendly. The way to increase productivity or production efficiency was by reducing the number of workers by kaizen the production process for a given production volume under the constraints of “just-in-time” production.

The role of organized kaizen activities that group leaders, chief leaders and engineers are carrying out, and also the fact that their activities are cantered not only upon productivity increases but also, and more significantly, upon the humanization of work after the modification of the cost management system. The importance is given here to forming their “kaizen mind” and “teamwork” (in Toyota’s sense, it means cooperation among company’s members). These voluntary activities also allow workers to give attention in their operations to product quality, productivity, costs and security. By carrying out kaizen activities through quality circles or the suggestion system even if they can not realize an important kaizen from economic viewpoint, workers are eventually able to obtain the abilities required for becoming supervisory staff, given the fact that supervisory staff is selected from workers. For these reasons, the emphasis is on the activities themselves.

5.5 CHANGES OF TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION AFTER USING KAIZEN

a) Finance

Toyota’s cost reduction management starting from “target costing” in the product development phase and carrying through to “kaizen costing” in the production phase. When a development of a new or revised vehicle is decided, its sales price and target (or desired) profit per vehicle are fixed by the top management that takes into consideration of the market price and new car’s features that the Sales Division proposed based upon marketing and consumer analysis. As a result, the desired cost per vehicle is given automatically. This cost is called the “target cost”, because it has to be attained firstly in the product design phase and then in the production process where this model and its parts will be produced. After setting the target cost, the target costing is launched under the control of Cost Management Council (or Target Costing Council).

b) Human Resource

One quarter of newly hired young workers left Toyota during their first year in 1990. For solving the labor shortage thus provoked, Toyota employed a huge number of temporary workers (their ratio in the direct workers reached more than 10%) mainly assigned to assembly plants that consisted of, in general, a stamping shop, a welding shop, a paint shop and a assembly shop

Taking the labor shortage for a long term phenomenon, Toyota also decided to change working conditions employ a younger labor force including high school graduated girls and to enable workers over forty years old to work on the assembly line led Toyota’s management to modify and rationalize its production and human resources management

Reference : (The Anatomy of Japanese Business, 1984, by Sato/ Hoshino)

HOW 5S SYSTEM BE IN PRACTICE IN ORGANIZATION

ABOUT 5S SYSTEM

The activities at the heart of 5S for the office (organizing, ordering, cleaning standardizing and sustaining) are completely logical. They are the basic rules for managing any effective workplace. The system which has been implemented companies throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, South America, and Asia will help eliminate waste, become much more efficient, and save lots of time and money. The 5S system is a tool that can work for everyone.

THE BRIEF HISTORY OF 5S

A systematic approach to organizing, ordering, cleaning, had its origin in post-World War II Japan probably in the mid 1950’s.At the time, Japanese manufacturing companies forced to produce with very few resources, so they developed a shop floor method to make every scrap count while wasting nothing.

Originally, there were only four activities in the Japanese system. These activities, each beginning with the letter S, were:

1. Seiri (cleaning up),

2. Seiton(organizing)

3. Seiso (cleaning), and

4. Seiketsu (systematic cleanliness).

Later, a fifth activity was added. Called Shitsuke (discipline), it completed the S elements that are now known as 5S.

(Reference: 5S For The Office: Organizing the workplace to eliminate waste by Thomas A Fabrizio and Don Tapping (2006))

Today, the 5S System retains its fundamental power to change the workplace and involve everyone in improvement. It also retains the five activities beginning with the letter “S,” as shown in below

Below shows what these individual words mean. An equivalent set of five ‘S’ words in English have likewise been adopted by many, to preserve the “5S” acronym in English usage. These are: Sort, Set (in place), Shine, Standardize, and Sustain.  Some purists do not agree with these English words. They argue that these words have lost the essence of the original 5 Japanese words.

SORT

Sort is the first visual workplace, corresponds to the Just-In-Time (JIT) principle of ‘only what is needed, only in the amounts needed and only when is needed’. In other words, Sort means that you will remove all items from the workplace that are not needed for current production (or clerical) operation. (Reference: 5 Pillars of The Visual Work Place: The Source Book for 5S Implementation by Hiroyuki Hirano (1995) Page 69)

Sort is important because creates a work environment in which space, time, money, energy, and other resource can be managed and used most effectively.

For example red-tagging is simple method for identifying potentially unneeded item in the factory, evaluating their usefulness, and dealing with them appropriately. Red-tagging literally means putting red tag on the items that need to be evaluated as being necessary or unnecessary. The red tags catch people attention because it color stands out.

SET IN ORDER

Set in order means that you arrange needed items so that they are easy to use and label them so that anyone can find them and put them away. (Reference: 5 Pillars of The Visual Work Place: The Source Book for 5S Implementation by Hiroyuki Hirano. (1995)Page 91) Sort and Set in Order work best when they are implemented together. No matter how well you arrange items, set in order can have little impact if many of the items are unnecessary. Similarly, if sorting is implemented without set in order it is much less effective.

Set in order important because it eliminates many kinds of waste in production. These includes searching waste, waste due to difficulty in using items, and waste due to difficult in returning items.

For instance, worker desk drawers are crammed full of pencils, markers and other stationary supplies. The workers need to arrange needed items so that easy to use.

SHINE

Shine means that we keep everything swept and clean. It is component that emphasizes the removal of dirt, grime and dust from the workplace.

(Reference: 5S For The Office: Organizing the workplace to eliminate waste by Thomas A Fabrizio and Don Tapping (2006)Page 3)

One of the more obvious purposes of Shine is to turn the workplace into a clean, bright place where everyone will enjoy working. It is keep everything in top condition so that when someone needs to use something, it is ready to be used.

For example companies should abandon the inadequate tradition of annual ‘year-end’ cleaning. Instead, cleaning should become a deeply ingrained part of daily work habit, so that tools, equipment, and work areas will be ready for use all the time.

STANDARDIZE

Standardization means creating a consistent way that tasks and procedures are carried. When we think “standardization,” we should think “anyone” (Reference: 5 Pillars of The Visual Work Place: The Source Book for 5S Implementation by Hiroyuki Hirano (1995) Page 257). Machinery standardization means anyone can operate the machinery. Operation standardization means anyone can perform the operation. It creates guidelines for keeping the area organized, orderly and clean, and making the standards visual and obvious. To get along together, we even need to standardize our behavior to a certain extent although, of course, we always keep our individuality. In order to standardize we must use the same tools n a more systematic way to make sure that the 3S (sort, set in order and shine) are maintained.

For an illustration, duties are sorted out according to the first 3S and the scheduling cycle. This particular example shows clearly who is responsible for each job, which area, what to do and when to do it.

SUSTAIN

Sustain means to make a habit of properly maintaining correct procedures (5 Pillars of The Visual Work Place: The Source Book for 5S Implementation by Hiroyuki Hirano (1995) Page 102). It involves education and communication to ensure that everyone follows the 5S standards. It denotes commitment to maintain orderliness and to practice the first 4 S as a way of life.

For example, you want to start an exercise program. You decided to work out at gym three times a week. You probably have difficult time to sustain because forces in your life such as limits on your time and energy. However if rewards of sticking to your exercise program (example, looking better) are greater than the rewards of not sticking to it (example having more time for other things that you need to do) your commitment will increase and probably sustain the program over time.

The same principle applies in 5S implementation. Without your commitment to sustain the benefits of the 5S activities, implementation of the 4S will fall part. However if rewards of implementing the first 4S are greater for you than the rewards of not implementing them, sustaining them through the 5S should be some thing you take naturally.

BENEFITS OF 5S IMPLEMENTATION

Individual

Give an opportunity to provide creative input regarding how workplace should be organized and laid out and how you work should be done.

Make your job more satisfying

Remove many obstacles and frustrations in your work.

Help you know what you are expected to do, and when or where you v are expected to do it.

Make it easier to communicate with everyone you work with.

Company

Zero changeovers bring product diversification

To remain competitive companies must reduce changeover time to zero, increase changeover frequency and become more adaptive to product diversification. The 5S help reduce changeover time by reducing searching time and raising overall operating efficiency.

For example if the company implement 5S, they can save time and produce more variety of product. The workers don’t have to waste their time looking or searching things. The workers can use the time to think about new product out of the box.

Zero defects bring higher quality

Defects results from many causes, including attaching the wrong parts and using the wrong item. Sort and set in order prevent this kind of error by organizing the tools properly. Further, keeping production equipment clean reduces equipment-operation errors and faster retooling. These and other effect of 5S implementation can help all add up to fewer defects.

For example is label and arrange the tools that needed with red tagging. It is easy for workers to identify the right parts to avoid error so that the companies can produce higher quality.

Zero waste brings lower costs

Factories and offices are virtual storehouse of waste. 5S implementation can help eliminate the following types of waste:

in -process and warehouse inventory

the use of excessive amounts of space fo