What Toyota Production System is Really About?

WHAT TOYOTA PRODUCTION SYSTEM IS REALLY ABOUT BY MOHAMMED HAMED AHMED SOLIMAN 1

This presentation is for the article that was originally published in
LinkedIn Pulse with the same name “What Toyota Production
System is Really About” by Mohammed Hamed Ahmed Soliman
Read here on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-
toyota-production-system-really-mohammed-hamed-ahmed-
soliman

A Thinking Production System
One of the students of Taiichi Ohno said “We at
Toyota made a mistake. We should have never
called it the Toyota Production System, we
should have called it the Thinking Production
System. Because the real point is to make
people think and people are the value of the
system."

The TPS is made by people, adapted by people,
improved by people, and is being improved by
people everyday and every year. Toyota's
employees are making several improvements to
the process everyday and thousands of
improvements every year.

When a company say TPS didn't work for us, it
is a leadership failure. I suspect they have tried
to use the tools in a rigid way. The tools are
flexible, adaptable, and implementable in many
different conditions and industries. That's why
you have to think about the tools and use your
own mind. Develop your people and motivate
them to think and act.
Leadership
People Development
Motivation

A long-term Innovation Process
Toyota Pirus Was the First Hybird Car in the World
The Toyota R&D department has played a major role in the success of Toyota.

Minomi was a Reolvution in Material Movement – Minomi is About Elmimintaintg
Containers Completely

Minomi is a revolution in the material movement.
For those who don't know Minomi. It is an
innovation initiated in Japan focused on
eliminating container completely. One of the
Toyota group of companies in Japan called Central
Motors has successfully created a revolution in
material flow by a well designed system to move
parts without containers, the system called
(Minomi).

Toyota
invented
a Robot
that can
play
trumpet!

TPS is a customizable production system:

The system can't be copied. What has worked in an
environment or specific industry may not work in the other.
Even from a Toyota plant to another, the system can't be copied
identically. You have to think and adapt the tools. And make
them tailored to your needs to suite the current condition. The
best example comes from the Menomi system. When the Toyota
Georgetown, Kentucky tried to copy and paste the technique
from the Japanese plant, the process failed. Later, under the
leadership of Gary Convis, the president of Kentucky plant, and
because Gary was trained very well in lean thinking, he lead the
implementation using the Toyota Way. Again this leads us to the
first point. TPS is a Thinking Production System. The real point is
to make people think and the system won't succeed without
leaders trained on Lean Thinking and Lean Culture.
Again, TPS Thinking Production System

it is not only for manufacturing. TPS gives outstanding results in any
area that want to achieve overall improvement in productivity, quality,
safety, and reliability. It works very well with many different industries
and businesses include healthcare, hospitals, hotels, accommodations,
banking, services, construction,...etc. The problem in the use of word
"production" makes many think that the system is for manufacturing.
What about accelerating the check in and check out process in the
hotel? Won't this improve productivity? Improve customer experience?
There are many success stories in non-manufacturing industries
presented in many lean references. We somehow managed to ignore
the whole system aspect of Lean thinking and started calling it "Lean"
or "Lean manufacturing" instead. This tragic reduction in scope allowed
business leaders dismiss lean as a manufacturing thing. As a result,
manufacturing companies believed that lean could be delegated down,
and non manufacturing companies believed that lean didn't apply to
them at all.
TPS is a productivity improvement system:

Using lean in healthcare or hospital mean delivering the surgical tools on time,
ensure all medical drugs and other tools are available on time when needed and
where needed, ensure the emergency room always has a vacancy, and much more!
This will improve productivity, quality, and safety.

Accelerating the check in & check out processes in any service
area like hotels, airports…etc will improve productivity and
customer satisfaction.

TPS is the Toyota problem solving kata
Toyota has its own unique way in solving problems and developing leaders. Toyota has a
psychology of process improvement unlike its other competitor. Kata is a Japanese term and
is used in many Japanese martial arts. Literately mean "way of doing" and refers to a series
of practice moves to build on form and technique. As Mike Rother presented What is the
core form and technique that we want to build in leaders? 1. The ability to systematically
improve processes toward a clear target (Improvement Kata) 2. The ability to coach others
on the Improvement Kata (Coaching Kata). The routine of process improvement is done
through the Toyota improvement kata, and the routine of coaching people is done through
the Toyota coaching kata. The Deming cycle (PDCA) is a learning cycle rather than a process
improvement cycle. If you have solved the problem and didn't develop your people, then
the process will fail! People won't be able to continue managing the process with the new
way if they haven't been trained on the culture of continuous improvement. Things will slip
back and it will be difficult to sustain the lean results which is the problem in many
companies. I highly encourage you to read this article: Culture Change Through the Problem
Solving Kata here: http://www.personal-lean.org/2015/06/kata-new-habitual-rotuine-for-
culture.html

The routine of process improvement is done
through the Toyota improvement kata
Each step is a
PDCA cyle
toward the
target

The routine of coaching people is done through
the Toyota Coaching Kata.

A learning
cycle that can
teach new
behavior

TPS is the Toyota people & system:
The system is built by people, modified by people and
improved by people. People are the foundation of the
continuous improvement. Actually, people are more
important than the process. And companies should
give higher priority in developing their people and
provide an excellent working environment for them.
Unfortunately, many companies say that they do lean,
six sigma and other improvement projects to improve
the morale of people and develop a new routine of
thinking. But they are actually focusing only on the
process and seeking the short outcomes. Toyota is
highly committed to leadership development and
training and coaching their employees.

In the Toyota Under Fire, when Jeff interviewed
Akio Toyoda after the several recalls crisis, Mr
Toyoda said that the rate of growth was higher
than the rate of people development.
We are sorry to our
people, the rate of
growth was higher
than the rate of
people
development

Jidoka is a principle of building quality for customers NOT inspecting
quality. Building quality mean making it right at the first time. If you
are making defected products or unacceptable quality standard for
your customer and filtering this defects out through an inspection
system, then there is no build in quality. And No Jidoka.
TPS is a system to build quality for customers:

The TPS has been made like a roof. If you take
any of the pillars holding the roof, the system
will collapse. Take out quality, then no TPS.

TPS is a strategy:
TPS is a strategy to achieve the operations excellence
goals in quality, productivity, costs, safety and people
morale. Without a vision aligned with the strategic
objectives and the stretch goals, the improvement effort
will have no direction to go. A process like Hoshin Kanri
will help align the goals, the plan and the effort toward a
common goal in order to achieve the strategic business
objectives. Hoshin Kanri pays attention to the method
rather than the results unlike the management by
objectives MBO. Hoshin kanri focus on the innovative
methods of achieving the target under a high motivation
and development system.

TPS is not a translated production system:
Many techniques that we use today with little or no conscious are Japanese terms.
Techniques like Poka Yoka, Hoshin Kanri, Genchi Genbutsu and the others. TPS is not a
documented process so it can be translated via people in Japan and USA and passed through
different cultures. Taiichi Ohno refused at the beginning to document TPS in fear that people
will narrowly focus on tools and theories. He said, if you write it, you will kill it. For example
Genchu Genbutsu also mean gemba which is translated as "go and see" is being used by
many leaders. Leaders would only go & see when there is a problem. Gemba is being used
only as a problem solving process. Actually, Gemba is a place for teaching, and learning
management. Gemba is the place where value creating work happen, and where you should
put value for your customers. All lean tools and techniques like value stream mapping, work
standardization process, ...etc must be planned, measured, adapted, standardized and
improved at the workplace. Gemba is not only a place to solve problems by grasping the
current situation and finding the root causes by asking 5 whys. If you are interested in this
subject, please read my article Daily Walks Train Future Leaders published in the Industrial
Management Magazine JAN/FEB 2014 at the IIE.

• Gemba is the place where value creating work happen
• Gemba is the place where you should put value for your
customers
• Gemba is a place to show respect, motivate & develop
people, and improve employees morale
• Gemba is a place to grasp, observe, and analyze
problems
• All lean tools such as Work Standard and VSM should
be planned, standardized, improved, and sustained at
the gemba
Translating gemba as go & see
make many leaders go to the
workplace only to solve
problems when they are exist.

Taiichi Ohno refused at the beginning to
document TPS in fear that people will narrowly
focus on tools and theories. He said, if you
write it, you will kill it.

TPS is total performance solutions:
The tools and if used properly can
turnaround any organization. Speed
kills the competition. All the tools you
need to maximize the productivity,
quality, speeds, and delivery are
included in the TPS. You just need to
learn how to use these tools and the
culture required to implement them in
your organization. And remember, a
good culture will last forever, a good
toolkit under s stressed management
system will die quickly! It is all about
leadership and how are you going to
use these tools.

Continuous
Improvement
Root Cause Problems Solving
Leadership Development
FMEA RCFA OEE RCM PARETO
5S PDCA SMED JIT Heijunka
Poka Yoka Gemba Kaizen VSM Muda
Kanban
Hoshin
Kanri KATA 5-Whys Six Sigma
The tools need Culture
WHAT TOYOTA PRODUCTION SYSTEM IS REALLY ABOUT BY
MOHAMMED HAMED AHMED SOLIMAN
29

TPS is not lean:
Yes we called it an inventory reduction program when we first heard of it. Just In Time is one of the main pillars in
TPS. Just In Time mean ideally "One Piece Flow" the biggest waste in the process is the inventory. Inventory is the
greatest waste and it hides many problems like quality, downtimes, waiting,...etc. Lets get back to history. Prior to
the 1970 oil crisis, very few people in the world know what Toyota was up to. The fact that is emerged stronger
than ever while many of its competitors were quite battered made people take notice. People went to Japan to
find out how Toyota had done this. What came back was that Toyota was doing something called "just in time." in
the west this was interpreted as an inventory reduction program. As a result it became known as "just in time
inventory" program. No body really believed that inventory could be taken out of the whole value stream, and so
"just-in-time" came to mean "just-in-time inventory; go beat the heck out of your suppliers." The big three auto
companies (Ford, General Motors, Chrysler) had lots of power over their suppliers, and they became pretty expert
at this tactic - to their eventual detriment. James P Womack came with Lean Thinking in 1996 and helped many to
see the whole value chain. He showed how waste clogs the system, and how continuous improvement was
needed to link all parts of the chain to customer demand. he explain his findings in plain English, but once again
we didn't hear. We somehow managed to ignore the whole system aspect of Lean thinking and started calling it
"Lean" or "Lean manufacturing" instead. This tragic reduction in scope allowed business leaders dismiss lean as a
manufacturing thing . As a result, manufacturing companies believed that lean could be delegated down, and non
manufacturing companies believed that lean didn't apply to them at all. Lean may be an element of the larger
strategy, but it most likely to be relegated to the plant. As a result, one company after another has tried Lean and
has failed.

TPS is a pull system not a kanban system:
A pull system is the key to avoid over
production waste. You are linking the chain to
the customer demand instead of a schedule.
You are no longer producing based on a
schedule. As presented in Toyota Way, kanban
is an organized system of inventory buffer. And
according to Ohno, inventory is a waste. So
kanban is something to strive to get rid of, not
to be proud of!

TPS is not making to order in sequence:

TPS promotes leveling rather than making to
order in sequence. Most of suppliers try to
follow the lean principle of making to order. But
since customer demands can never been
stable, and is naturally unpredictable, irregular
and vary significantly, following the customer
demand in sequence will cause a lot of issues
and wastes. You have to level the product
volume and mix. That's why many businesses
have difficulties building to order, and say that
Toyota has a stable environment, less
fluctuation in customer demand, and TPS is
only suitable for Toyota. They don't understand
the underlying power of leveling.
34
Without leveling you
will create more wastes
by following the
customer demand in
sequence

TPS is 8 steps Toyota business practice:

Those are the eight steps of Toyota business practice in solving
problems. 1. Define the problem relative to the ideal (plan). 2. Break
down the problem into manageable pieces (plan). 3. Find the root
cause of the problem (plan). 4. Set the targets for achievement
(plan). 5. Select the suitable solution from different countermeasures
(plan). 6. Implement the plan (do). 7. Revise the outcomes as
expected (check). 8. Find out what is going wrong, adapt, adjust, and
then repeat the cycle (act). The plan is invoked 5 times, this is to
ensure that the root cause of the problem has been eliminated. Lean
emphasize on the plan. And the plan phase cannot be created
without a daily observation at the gemba to find the root causes,
gather facts, discuss things with the process operators and develop
the best countermeasure from different alternatives. For more about
how the Deming cycle is utilized to develop leaders, read this article:
36
http://www.personal-lean.org/2015/06/kata-new-habitual-rotuine-for-culture.html

TPS is not zero inventory:
Many think that JIT is a zero inventory. The
ideal thing is "one piece flow" which can ONLY
be established through a production cell. There
is a buffer. A little use of buffer. There is a
buffer in the Andon system. There is a buffer to
protect your customer. There is a buffer to
avoid stopping the whole production line to fix
a problem. There is a buffer to avoid breaking
down a critical manufacturing process.
37

Ideal One Piece Flow
Batch Processing
38

Design a Production Cell

TPS is build on deep supplier relationships:
This is one of the most important factors in the success
of Toyota. Few companies realize so. Giving a small
example, if you are not working with your suppliers to
truly reduce the inventory holding, the process will fail.
If you are trying to reduce inventory and asking your
supplier to deliver fewer batch sizes and deliver more
frequent, if your supplier is not ready, the process will
fail. I have seen many and many companies trying to
shift the cost of holding the inventory to their suppliers.
No real savings in the complete value stream! You are
redistribution of cost to suppliers, and no real savings.
Very few people understand this. I recommend reading
this article https://hbr.org/2004/12/building-deep-
supplier-relationships at Harvard Business Review.
Building this kind of relation with suppliers is really one
of the most difficult parts in implementing the TPS, but
it is the most important part too.

For more info visit: www.personal-lean.org

What Toyota Production System is Really About?

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