0 Toyota Production System

Introduction 

The Toyota’s need for improving its competitiveness in global car production led to the development of Toyota Production System (TPS). The company believes that TPS will assist the firm in confronting with market competition in a more organized manner. The firm developed TPS with intent to effectively meet increasing global demand for quality and low cost cars. Evidence suggests that this system has greatly aided the organization to cut down operating costs and to foster employee creativity. This paper will analyze Toyota’s Production System, computerized elements of the lean manufacturing system, and technological advancements in automobile industry. 

Toyota Production System (TPS) 

TPS is an integrated socio-technical system developed by Taiichi Ohno, Shigeo Shingo, and Eiji Toyoda. This system includes its management philosophy and practices. It assists Toyota in organizing its manufacturing activities and logistics and in effective interaction with suppliers and customers. The major objectives of TPS include resolution on the overburden, inconsistency, and elimination of waste. As Basu points out, this system addresses seven kinds of waste such as waste of overproduction, waste of time on hand, waste in transportation, waste of processing itself, waste of stock on hand, waste of movement, and waste of making defective products (Basu 11). Toyota believes that quality management is the key to global competitiveness and hence the company deploys the TPS as a tool for meeting customer tastes and preferences. The most fascinating feature of the TPS is that it can accurately identify wastes in production and effectively optimize various scheduling processes. In the view of some experts, the greatest strength of TPS is the way it develops people. Unlike a push system where employees just work according to the instructions they are given, the TPS greatly fosters employee creativity and this situation benefits the company to improve its productivity. In TPS, T stands for ‘Thinking’ as well as ‘Toyota’. The TPS encourages Toyota workers to come up with revolutionary production techniques and unique ideas that would contribute to the firm’s market competitiveness. It is noted that this system is highly potential to develop efficient leaders who can thoroughly understand various processes and hence train others. In addition, TPS is a better tool to develop exceptional teams of employees that can properly follow the company’s philosophy. 

Similarly, this system greatly aids the organization to cut lead-time by eliminating all the bits that do not add any value to the manufacturing process. A cut in lead-time in turn will contribute to cost reduction and operational efficiency. And an electric light board, an important feature of TPS, assists workers to quickly identify faults (if any) that occurred during the production process, and this system prevents moving of defective items to the next stages. Under TPS, employees work on defects only when they occur and this strategy benefits the organization to drop number of staff to be employed and thereby reduce cost of production (Toyota). The Toyota’s production system promotes continuous improvement by encouraging employees to learn lessons from faults. In addition to improving product quality, the TPS also aims to cut production costs and thereby increase profitability. This system gives great emphasis on the local procurement of production material with intent to reduce costs. Rather than focusing on defective products, the company’s production system tries to identify and restructure defective processes. It pays specific attention to the organization’s policies and strategies and trains employees to strictly comply with Toyota’s accepted rules and standards (Toyota Public Affairs Division). 

The TPS uses a pull system to avoid over production and to keep low inventory levels. This system ensures effective work shift scheduling so as to avoid imposing work overload on employees. The firm’s production system has been structured in such a way that the increased respect is given to network of partners and suppliers by helping them improve their supply chain activities. Hence, it can be stated that TPS is a comprehensive approach to manufacturing, since it integrates people, management, technology, and creative thinking under the concept of total quality management. The TPS adopts lean manufacturing system to reduce lead time and to promote a learning environment within the organization. Various tools of lean manufacturing are crucial to identify wasteful processes and thereby trim down cost of production. Moreover, TPS is a technological system with information system dimensions as well as people management system dimensions. 

Lean manufacturing system 

Error proofing, Kanban System, stop the line quality system, visual management, in station process control, level production, takt time, and quick changeover are the major computerized elements of the lean manufacturing system (“Basic Elements of Lean Manufacturing.”). The error proofing system assists the firm in preventing products from being built inappropriately, whereas the Kanban system is a pull material system that deploys cards to move material along the value stream. Stop the line quality system serves Toyota as a tool for stopping production line when bad quality is recognized. Similarly, the visual management system aids a new employee to get a detailed understanding about his jobs in the firm. In station process control is the system developed for ensuring the production of good quality parts, while the level production tries to match the production level to customer demand. The takt time system pays attention to keeping production pace in line with customer demand. Finally, the quick changeover system increases the efficiency of changeover from one product to another in a quick manner. 

Automobile industry advancements 

The automobile industry has achieved a lot of technological advancements over the last few years. As Heaps points out, the automobile industry of today is giving focus on eliminating environmental, quality, and cost management issues in addition to pushing the technological envelope. According to the writer, technology is becoming the major factor influencing the manufactures’ decision about product, processes, and business. In addition, the goal to advance technology is likely to affect business expansion strategies including mergers and acquisitions. According to Heaps, another notable new trend in automobile industry is that companies are switching their focus from quality improvement to new product development. Similarly, technological innovation is considered more important than product pricing and affordability. Finally, current trends indicate that environmental concern ratings are slightly falling due to overemphasis on product features (Heaps). 

Works Cited 

Basu, Ron. Fit Sigma: A Lean Approach to Building Sustainable Quality Beyond Six Sigma. UK: John Wiley and Sons, 2011. Print. 

Heaps, Russ. “7 amazing advances in new car technology.” Bankrate.com. 2012. Web. 21 May 2012. <http://www.bankrate.com/finance/auto/7-amazing-advances-in-new-car-technology-1.aspx> 

“Basic Elements of Lean Manufacturing.” Lean Masters Consulting Group, Inc.2006. Web. 21 May 2012. <http://www.leanmasters.com/elements.html> 

Toyota Public Affairs Division. “The Toyota production system.” Toyota Georgetown. (2003). Web. 21 May 2012. <http://www.toyotageorgetown.com/tps.asp>