Contents
Good day, dear blog readers! Today I will reveal the secret to the success of Toyota Corporation, or, as they are now called, the 14 principles of the Tao of Toyota. This is a completely different philosophy, way of thinking and style of doing business. It differs from the rest in that it values its employees and never rests on its laurels, striving for excellence. Therefore, it has a tremendous success, while even the weakest employee eventually becomes a highly qualified staff, motivated to achieve and develop.
If you take some methods into service, you can establish an effective workflow, especially if it is related to production.
Review on principles
It is recommended to carefully reread them 5 times, with a notebook in which you will write out emerging ideas and basic work strategies. I will briefly describe them, for more information you can get by reading the book. Jeffrey Liker «14 principles of the Tao of Toyota». So, each of them belongs to a certain category:
Philosophy of the long term
1. Make management decisions with a long-term perspective
Even if it hurts short-term financial goals. You need to find your place in the company and strive to promote it. As in life, first of all, one should understand the meaning of one’s purpose, and the main goal should be improvement and development, and only then profit. It is also necessary to plan and set goals for yourself, practicing a strategic approach, and when necessary, a systematic one.
Create, create something that will be of value to customers and society itself, so it is necessary to direct all efforts and resources precisely to the implementation of this task.
Know how to be responsible for your actions, do not go with the flow, but manage and decide what exactly your day will be like. Believe in yourself and your strengths.
The right process produces the right results
2. Continuous flow process helps identify problems
It is necessary to reorganize production so that it does not stand in one place, that is, to exclude pauses.
In order to instantly detect difficulties, it is necessary to establish contact, communication between people and the processes themselves, then there will be no failures in the transfer of information.
This continuous flow should be understandable to everyone, only then will it help people to improve.
3.Use a pull system to avoid overproduction
Business is efficient when the client receives exactly what he ordered, on time and in the required volume.
Work in progress should be kept to a minimum, as should stockpiling. They should be replenished only if necessary, at the request of the client, in order to avoid unnecessary accumulation, and then the need to urgently sell the goods.
Pay attention to consumer demand, which can change and fluctuate, and analyze why this happens. A huge mistake when the emphasis is not on the client’s lively interest, but on computer calculations, tables and graphs.
4. Distribute the amount of work evenly: work like a turtle, not a hare
If you evenly distribute the load, you will eliminate such unpleasant moments as the effect of professional burnout or equipment breakdown. It is important to smooth out irregularities in the graph, and even better, not to allow it to fluctuate. Then you will exclude in production such moments as emergency work or downtime, which can reduce consumer interest in your product. Unfortunately, this is sometimes not understood by companies with mass production, where you can often notice staff turnover and low-quality goods. After all, you know the saying: “Slow down, you will go further?”
5.Make production stop to solve problems
And make it part of the production culture if the quality demands it.
Use various methods in your activities to ensure the quality of the goods.
The organization must have a support system in place that can quickly resolve problems and have the right to make adjustments.
The equipment must independently identify problems and notify the team of its presence. Ideal inclusion in the activities of modern machines that have elements of human intelligence.
In order to increase productivity and get a quality product the first time, you should apply the principle of stop and slow down in your activities.
6. Standard tasks — the basis
The basis for continuous improvement and delegation of authority to employees.
Flow and pull is the ability to apply stable methods of work that give predictability, as a result of which coherence will be established, and the result will be expected and uniform.
In order to transfer the experience gained to new employees who have just joined the company, creative expression and adaptation should be encouraged. Then what has been achieved will be consolidated and become a standard that will be easy to share.
7. Use visual control
To ensure that no difficulty is left unnoticed. For effective management and quality work, simple methods should be used, and even better, visual ones to indicate errors and deviations from the required standard.
If the computer is a distraction, you should exclude it.
It is recommended to reduce the number of reports so that there is no more than one sheet. This also applies to financial reports.
8. Use only reliable, proven technology
Most often, it is worth doing some tasks manually, since modern technologies should help people, not replace them. Therefore, refrain from introducing additional equipment.
Use familiar methods because new technologies can sometimes jeopardize an entire stream and are very difficult to standardize.
If you are still going to apply new technologies, conduct initial tests in real conditions.
Cancel or modify technology that does not fit into the overall culture and philosophy of the company in order to avoid instability and unreliability.
But it is not worth completely abandoning modern technologies, especially at times when it is necessary to invent new options that will help to cope with the difficulties. And encourage employees to think creatively.
Add value to the organization by developing your employees and partners
9. Nurture leaders
Who thoroughly know their business, profess the philosophy of the company and can teach it to others. It is much easier to grow leaders on your own than to look for and buy them.
The leader must have the skills to communicate effectively, especially with clients. As practice shows, if he knows his duties perfectly, then he can safely convey the meaning and philosophy of the corporation. By his example, motivating others to comply with the laws and perform the assigned tasks with high quality.
10. Raise extraordinary people and form teams
They must profess the philosophy of the company. The values and beliefs of a corporation should be aimed at people who can accept and profess them, passing on experience to other firms. Then your team will be strong and stable.
Work hard to strengthen the production culture.
Train extraordinary people to act according to corporate ethics and rules.
Create groups that differ in functionality to improve quality and also solve difficult technical problems, thus improving the flow itself.
Everyone should be able to work in a team. This is a very important requirement in the selection of personnel — to be able to be in a team, realizing a common goal. When failures occur, teach this skill using team building techniques and exercises.
11. Respect your partners and suppliers
Challenge them with challenges and help them improve. Partners and suppliers are equal participants in the process, so treat them with respect.
Create conditions for partners that will stimulate their development and the search for new methods of work. If you have given them too difficult tasks — help with the implementation, then they will feel that they are valuable to you, which will only strengthen your business relationship.
Solving Fundamental Problems Drives Lifelong Learning
12. To understand the situation, you need to see everything with your own eyes
The basics of the management of the leading Toyota company are that the manager or leader is obliged to see the obstacle with his own eyes, independently verify and verify the data. It is a big mistake to shift responsibility, and especially when, without testing on their own, the leader makes a decision based on the words of employees or some kind of computer indicators.
Rule number one — reasoning should be based only on data that you have received and verified yourself. And this rule applies even to the top management of the corporation, which must directly see the difficulties that have arisen with their own eyes, and only then identify the necessary ways to eliminate them and give orders for action.
13. Take your time to decide
Based on consensus, weighing all possible options; implementing it, do not hesitate. Be sure to weigh the pros and cons, and only then choose a course of action. If you decide what needs to be done and in which direction to move, proceed to the implementation immediately, but remember to be careful.
Nemawashi is a process in which absolutely all employees participate in order to discuss the obstacles that have arisen and come up with ways to help cope with them. Then it becomes possible to arrive at one opinion by considering many different options. It is very capacious and lengthy, but definitely worth it, since such a large-scale way to find a solution to a problem helps to see a lot of other possible nuances and possibilities.
Employees will feel recognition, because the opinion of absolutely each of them is valuable. Which, again, will affect the cohesion and desire to promote the philosophy of their organization.
14. Become a learning structure
Through relentless introspection and continuous improvement.
Once you feel that you have achieved stability, start applying the tools of continuous improvement. As soon as the cause of unprofitable or inefficient work is clarified, it should immediately begin to eliminate it.
Organize the activities of the organization so that no inventory is required, then you can save on time and resources. And as a result, it is easy to identify the complexities that will be obvious in this case.
Respectful attitude towards employees, as I said, will reduce staff turnover. And accordingly, we will come to an important goal — to preserve the accumulated experience and nurture valuable employees, professionals in their field, who over time will be able to train newcomers and transfer the basics and rules of the corporation. The organization’s knowledge base should be carefully guarded.
Therefore, gradual career advancement will greatly help so that everyone has the opportunity to grow and develop. Then aggression will not accumulate, as a result of which there is a clear desire to quit.
At the end of the work, you should definitely analyze it, honestly, and openly stating the advantages and disadvantages. Then trust will arise in your organization, because initially employees, and then customers, will be sure that you will not hide unprofitable information.
It is imperative that if a difficult situation is successfully corrected, it is necessary to secure the corporation in the future by coming up with measures to prevent the repetition of the same mistake. Experience must be accumulated in order to advance, so it should be mastered the first time.
Conclusion
Be inspired by the experience of one of the world’s leading corporations, apply the rules of its corporate code in your practice in order to perform an economic miracle and develop your organization, giving the consumer a valuable and high-quality product.
I advise you to read this article: “The most effective methods of motivation to create and develop your business“. That’s all for today, dear readers! Subscribe to updates, there is still a lot of interesting news from the world of self-development and personal growth ahead of us. Bye Bye.