"Thinking" Production System From Toyota(ZT)

The "Thinking" Production System: TPS as a winning strategy for developing people in the global manufacturing environment

Teruyuki Minoura, Senior Managing Director, Chief Officer of Business Development Group & Purchasing Group. Mr. Minoura's previous position was managing director of global purchasing, Toyota Motor Corporation. He also served as president and CEO of Toyota Motor Manufacturing NA from 1998 to 2002.
(Photo courtesy of Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun)

At the 2003 Automotive Parts System Solution Fair, held in Tokyo, June 18, 2003, Teruyuki Minoura, then-managing director of global purchasing, Toyota Motor Corporation, talked about his experiences with TPS (the Toyota Production System), and what it means for suppliers and for the future of the auto industry.

Teruyuki Minoura is confident that the long-standing principles of the Toyota Production System will not change in the future, and that TPS will be able to meet any challenge. He noted that the system originally emerged through a trial-and-error approach aimed at solving practical problems and meeting the needs of the company. Recalling painful memories of the labor dispute of 1950 that destroyed so many friendships, he observed, "Businesses suffer if efforts are devoted to raising productivity when the products themselves cannot sell." It was through such experiences, that the basic concept of just-in-time was born.

In simplest terms, Just-in-time is "all about producing only what's needed and transferring only what's needed," says Minoura. Instead of the old top-down "push" system, it represented a change to a "pull" system where workers go and fetch only what is required. Tools, including the kanban (information card), andon (display board), and poka yoke (error prevention) were developed to implement the pull system. But, Minoura warns "simply introducing kanban cards or andon boards doesn't mean you've implemented the Toyota Production System, for they remain nothing more than mere tools. The new information technologies are no exception, and they should also be applied and implemented as tools."

A modern Toyota assembly line
Early in his career, Minoura worked under Taiichi Ohno, recognized as the creator of the Toyota Production System. Ohno, through tireless trial and error, managed to put into practice a "pull" system that stopped the factory producing unnecessary items. But Minoura observes that it was only by developing this "loose collection of techniques" into a fully-fledged system, dubbed the Toyota Production System or TPS, that they were able to deploy this throughout the company.

A "pull" system asks workers to use their heads

For Minoura, the way TPS develops people is its greatest strength. "Under a 'push' system, there is little opportunity for workers to gain wisdom because they just produce according to the instructions they are given. In contrast, a 'pull' system asks the worker to use his or her head to come up with a manufacturing process where he or she alone must decide what needs to be made and how quickly it needs to be made."

Taiichi Ohno "
An environment where people have to think brings with it wisdom, and this wisdom brings with it kaizen (continuous improvement)," notes Minoura. "If asked to produce only one unit at a time, to produce according to the flow, a typical line worker is likely to be flummoxed. It's a basic characteristic of human beings that they develop wisdom from being put under pressure. Perhaps the greatest strength of the Toyota Production System is the way it develops people." This is why when Minoura explains TPS, he says that the T actually stands for "Thinking" as well as for "Toyota."

In TPS, the T also stands for "Thinking"

Recalling being asked to solve problems by Ohno, Minoura says, "I don't think he was interested in my answer at all. I think he was just putting me through some kind of training to get me to learn how to think." Similarly, The Harvard Business School uses the case-study method as the best way to develop business thinkers. The Harvard professors never tell students the answers because, again, that is not the point. Minoura says, "Developing people is the starting point for monozukuri (making things) at Toyota."


To cut lead-time, cut out all the bits that don't add value.



2003 Automotive Parts System Solution Fair. Keynote speech was attended by over 1,000.
(Photo courtesy of Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun)

Implementing just-in-time production starts with reducing the lead-time for making things, according to Minoura. "The way to cut lead-time is to cut out all the bits that don't add value. There are only a few processes that actually involve processing. Most of the time stuff is just being transferred from place to place. If this causes a considerable lengthening in lead-time, aggressively getting rid of these bits where nothing is being processed is something that can be done right there right away. "

Next, one must get rid of defects. "If an item is defective, 'what's necessary' can't be delivered. If a defect is spotted, the line must stop right there and steps must be taken to sort out the problem. This highlights the concept of building quality into the process." Minoura elaborates: "Producing what's needed means producing the right quantity of what's needed. The answer is a flexible system that allows the line to produce what's necessary when it's necessary. If it takes six people to make a certain quantity of an item and there is a drop in the quantity required, then your system should let one or two of them drop out and get on with something else."



The line must stop if there is a problem.


Andon electric light board
It is essential to halt the line when there's a problem. "If the line doesn't stop, useless, defective items will move on to the next stage. If you don't know where the problem occurred, you can't do anything to fix it. That's where the concept of visual control comes from. The tool for this is the andon electric light board."

**
Deal with defects only when they occur, and the number of staff you need will drop.**



Standardized work is essential to identifying where things go wrong, Minoura says. "If you're turning out something in a different way from that on the standardized work sheet, or different from the way other people are doing it, that's the definition of a problem. By thinking about what is causing the problem, the problem itself will come into view. When the problem becomes clear this will lead to kaizen. If you make it a rule to deal with defects only when they occur, the number of staff you need will drop straight away. Things that are running smoothly should not be subject to any control. If you commit yourself to just finding and fixing problems, you'll be able to carry out effective control on your lines with fewer personnel."

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