“Toyota had problems when the white man took over.”
I live near the Toyota plant in Georgetown, Ky.–the company’s largest plant in the world. Lots of folks work there, including folks hours away in Eastern Kentucky. They are in many ways about as un-Japanese as you can get.
But these predominately white, Appalachian, rural workers are dead serious about TPS, the Toyota Production System. One of them said the opening quote to me, and others have implied it, discussing the brief period of quality problems Toyota had in the early 2000s.
You can’t apply this scientific, mathematical, results-focused method–the one Toyota used to conquer the automotive world in the 1980s–without truly valuing people.
Quality. That is the word often associated with Toyota’s production method. Measure things. Eliminate waste from the system. Measure again. It is an evolution of the statistical management methods W. Edwards Deming taught the Japanese after World War 2. Kaizan, the Japanese word meaning “continuous improvement,” made its way through most of the business world. I used versions of it in car dealerships, among other clients.
This post’s purpose: to argue that you can’t do this scientific, mathematical, results-focused method–the one Toyota used to conquer the automotive world in the 1980s–without truly valuing people.
I have two points to make:
First: Consider the Kentuckian. Why would he be so invested in Japan’s methods? How did Japan achieve this culture when it could have easily been a clash of civilizations, a foreign way answered by “that’s not how we do it here?” The answer is that the system relies on gathering deep input from the “lowest” levels of the organization.
I had the privilege to work a couple days in the Georgetown facility. I noticed that the factory’s main assembly line put on the doors of the Camry … then took them off again. The doors flew up above the line only to come down farther along to be reattached.
“I thought you Japanese were all about efficiency,” I said to the team leader where I was helping with a video shoot. “Seems like putting on the doors twice is a waste.”
The team leader, a good ol’ boy from Eastern Kentucky, had a quick answer: They had a kaizen team of workers who had looked for ways to eliminate waste. That team of folks on the line timed how long it took to bolt items to the floorboard. It turned out removing the door and using “swing seats” to move in for bolting took less time than opening and closing the doors. And it eliminated possible mutilation of the doors with the heavy bolting tools.
The team earned themselves a cut of the savings, by the way. But more to the point: Management listened to them.
Notice how often dialogue is a theme of this blog. It worked for the ancient Greeks, it worked for the Japanese, it works for you.
Management’s overall aim should be to create a system in which everybody may take joy in his work.
W. Edwards deming
Second: Consider Deming’s own words. He said that “no defects” was not enough. Beyond continuously improving quality, you had to empathize with the customer:
The moral is that it is necessary to innovate, to predict needs of the customer, give him more. He that innovates and is lucky will take the market.
Like Steve Jobs, Deming believed that it was up to the company to know customers so well they could offers products and services customers did not even know they wanted.
As my first point makes clear, Deming would care about how employees felt as well. Their in-the-trenches insights were critical to success. What did they know that management didn’t? What did they see from interactions with customers?
All of this is incredibly fulfilling for workers. To be valued as a team member who contributes to the team’s success–nice words on a page, but the sense of accomplishment it can provide has made some Kentuckians lifelong Toyota fans.
As Deming said:
Management’s overall aim should be to create a system in which everybody may take joy in his work.