History

Three men were especially prominent in creating the Toyota Production System: Sakicihi Toyoda; his son, Kiichiro Toyoda; and a production engineer Taiichi Ohno.

Sakichi Toyoda was the inventer of automatic looms who founded the Toyota Group. He invented a loom in 1902 that would stop automatically if any thread snapped. His invention opened the way for automated loomworks where a single operator could handle dozens of looms.

Sakichi’s invention reduced defects and raised yields, since a loom would not go on producing imperfect fabric and using up thread after a problem occurred. The principle of designing equipment to stop automatically and call attention to problems immediately is crucial to the Toyota Production System. It is evident on every production line at Toyota and at other companies that use the system.

When the Toyota Group set up an automoble- manufacturing operation in the 1930s, Kiichiro Toyoda headed the new venture. Kiitchiro travelled to the United States to study Henry Ford’s system in operation. He returned with a strong grasp of Ford’s conveyor system and an even stronger determination to adapt that system to the production volumes of the Japanese market.

Kiichiro’s solution was to provide the different processes in the assembly sequence with only the the kinds of quantities of items that were needed and only when they needed them. In his system, each process produced only the kinds and quantities of items that the next process in the sequence needed and only when it needed them.

Production and transport took place simultaneously and synchronously throughoui the production sequence – inside and between the processes. Kiichiro thus laid the groundwork for just-in-time production,and he gets credit for coining the term “just-in-time”

The man who did the most to structure the Toyota Production System as an intergrated framework was Taiichi Ohno. In the late1940s, Ohno – who later became an execitive vice president at Toyota- was in charge of a machining shop. He experimented with various ways of setting up the equipment to produce needed items in a timely manner. But he got a whole new perspective on just-in-time production when he visited the United States in 1956.

Ohno went to the USA to visit automobile plants, but his most important U.S. discovery was the supermarket, which did not exsist in Japan. Ohno was impressed at the way customers chose exactly what they wanted and in the quanties that they wanted, he admired the way supermarkets supplied merchandice in a simple, efficient, and timely manner.

In later years. Ohno often descibed his production system in terms of a supermarket. Each production line arrayed its diverse output for the following line to choose from, like merchandise on supermarket shelves. Each line became the customer for the preceding line, and each line became a supermarket for the following line. The following line would come and choose the items it needed and only those items. The proceding line would produce only the replacement items for the ones that the following line had selected.

This format, then was a pull system, driven by the needs of the following lines. It contrasted with the conventional push system, which were driven by the output of preceeding lines. Ohno developed a number of tools for opersting his production format in a systematic framework. His best Known of those tools is the Kanban system, which provides for conveying information in and between processes on instruction cards.

TOYOYA QUALITY

Toyota’s commitment to a world class, quality automobile is entrenched in the entire manufacturing philospy. From the development stages to manufacturing a product, the quest for superior quality is evident.

PHILOSOPHY

The cornerstone of Toyota’s quality control system is the role of team members in the production process. The principles on which Toyta was founded.

Toyota involves its team members by:

• encouraging an active role in quality control
• utilising employee ideas and opinions in production processes.
• and practicing “kaizen” – striving for constant improvement

Toyota team members treat the next person on the prodution line as a customer and will not pass a defective part on to that customer. If a team member finds a problem with a part or the automoble, the team member stops the line and corrects the problem before the vehicle goes further down the line.

PLANNING

In the planning stages, it is important to note that new-product planning emphasises a product that is as defect-free as possible. In other words. Toyota designs quality into the automobile.

PRODUCTION

Toyota’s quality control during production ensures that the correct materials and parts are used and fitted with precision and accuracy. This effort is combined with thousands of rigorous inspections performed by team members during the production process.

Team members on the line are responsible for the parts they use. They aer inspectors for their own work and that of co-workers. When a problem on any vechile is spotted, any team member can pull a rope – called an andon cord – strung along the assembly line to halt production. Only when the problem is resolved is the line restarted. This process involves every team member in monitoring and checking the quality of every car produced.

PEOPLE

Through Quality Circles and a suggestion system that rewards employees for ideas, team members strive to achieve the Toyota principle of kaizen, or continuous improvement. More than 90,000 employee suggestions are adopted each year. Some individual team members have contributed more than 1,000 suggestions.

Each team member is a quality inspector. At any time during the production process, any team member who spots a problem can stop production by pulling the “andon cord” located next to the assembly line. An andon board lets supervisors know the location of the problem with a blinking light and a distinct musical tone.

Each year about 60 percent of our team members achieve perfect attendance being present and on time every day. They are rewarded with a gift, a special evening of entertainment and chances to win a new automobile. Every year, in a random drawing 15 Kentucky-built Toyotas are given to team members with perfect attendance.

Source.Toyota Georgetown.