Is Toyota Still Relevant?

Of course, as a practitioner of the Toyota Production System, I had my own thoughts on this topic, but decided after outlining them to pose the question to someone I felt would have a unique perspective. The response was priceless.

“To me, this question is a profound oxymoron. I would suggest that the world automotive manufacturing industry leaders would laugh themselves unconscious if someone were to ask them this question.”
- David Moore

I am fairly certain David is still chuckling.

You see, he spent many years as an automotive executive at General Motors and various GM divisions. He didn’t just have a front row seat to the show when Toyota overtook the U.S. in the small-car market, he was a player in the game. He spent time at NUMMI, learned from and alongside many of the biggest names in Quality and the Toyota Production System (and its derivative practice, lean), and later transformed several plants using TPS and Toyota Way principles.

As we tossed ideas back and forth and shared stories via email, my own thoughts began to solidify beyond my initial position. Is Toyota relevant? Let’s dig into that!

It Should Go Without Saying…

Beyond its millions of customers, Toyota is certainly relevant to its employees, its suppliers, and the communities in which it does business. And without question, Toyota is relevant to the automotive industry as a major player and as a formidable competitor.

Toyota has set the standard for high-quality, reliable vehicles for the past 40 years. They have lead the way in hybrid energy-efficient vehicles. They’ve defined and executed the new manufacturing paradigm for how to utilize the talents and abilities of their entire workforce to innovate, continuously improve, and contribute to the well-being of their country and all communities in which they operate.

And pretty much everyone else in the automotive industry is still trying to figure out exactly how they accomplish this.

And it isn’t just the automotive companies that are left confused. Most western companies are still trying to understand how Toyota operates and most have failed (some to lesser degrees, others rather miserably) in the effort, even though Toyota has operated with an “Open Kimono” and has let the world study and copy their “tools”.

Literally thousands of articles, papers and books have been written on Toyota’s approach (if you don’t believe me, pick up a book on “lean” at random and count the references to Toyota) yet many organizations that have attempted to become “lean” are no closer now than they were when they started.

So, what gives?

Perhaps the Real Confusion Has Been Caused by “Lean”

Few western leaders have taken the time to understand and accept the culture and humility that Toyota Leadership operates under. While many North American managers point out that the cultural advantages that exist in leading operations in Japan, none have been able to adequately explain how Toyota has been able to transplant their manufacturing dominance into other countries and cultures.

I believe that the answer lies in the heart of the leaders and the shared “long-term view” that they believe in and follow. Toyota has a 50-year vision, not a short-term “make the quarter” financial-results focus.

The Toyota Production System, which many westerners understand little of and have been trying to copy, is reflective of Toyota’s approach at a “point-in-time” coming out of World War II, with a country whose industries had been destroyed so resources to re-industrialize were very limited. The TPS tools were originally designed by industrial engineers to address these problems and minimize waste of these limited resources.

Born of necessity, the TPS has survived, thrived and evolved beyond the initial need to conserve. Perhaps the most truly revolutionary contribution that Toyota discovered was not only the value of teaching and training their entire workforce to continuously improve their jobs, but also the power of entrusting the entire workforce to do so to the betterment of all. Each individual in Toyota continues to move forward, learn, evolve and change for the better, and thus collectively, Toyota does the same.

Recent “ex-Toyota” employees worry that their knowledge is aging unbecomingly, getting old and outdated within a couple of years of their departures from Toyota… that is how fast things change.

We Tend to Use “Lean” and “TPS” Interchangeably. We Should Not.

The principles outlined by “lean” summarized what was visible from the study of Toyota many years back. In short, “lean” itself is but a model, and an incomplete one at that. More pieces continue to be added and filled in but to some degree, lean is starting to look a bit like Baron Frankenstein’s monster. It may be just a matter of time before the monster turns on its creators.

The reality is that many practitioners and lean enthusiasts have been studying intently and following passionately a model that is but an image, (somewhat) representative of the true thing. Many have become so wrapped up in this model, that they end out confused into thinking and believing that the model is the thing and not merely a representation of the thing. This is reminiscent of one of my favorite quotes from “The New Shop Floor Management” by Kiyoshi Suzaki explaining the concept of “genbutsu”:

“When we study management, for example, we try to understand it with words, models, concepts and the like. However, what we are looking for is the truth, a pragmatic solution instead of an intellectual abstraction. If we are not careful, we may start to think that the model or concept is the reality and not a representation of reality.”

I believe that this is what has happened with lean and TPS. It reminds me of what Cobb says to his dead wife, Mal, who haunts his dreams in the hit movie “Inception”:

“I wish. I wish more than anything. But I can't imagine you with all your complexity, all your perfection, all your imperfection. Look at you. You are just a shade of my real wife. You're the best I can do; but I'm sorry, you are just not good enough.”

“Lean”, in all of its complexity, all of its perfection, and all of its imperfection, is but a shade of the TPS, the Toyota Way and the Toyota Management System. It is, as a model on its own, not good enough. For that reason above all, Toyota will continue to be relevant for a very long time.