Essay On Toyota

Jennifer Burgess

Prof. Jonathon Greer

10 September 2017

Toyota Paving the Manufacturing Road

The manufacturing industry is in constant motion all the time, each company striving to be better than its competitors. Manufacturers are continuously pushing to have the best product, at the lowest price, and on time. After all, it’s all about pleasing the customer’s demands, without them you are nothing. But, there is one company who has paved the path on manufacturing industry. They have made a permanent mark on the world and raised the bar for everyone one else around them, Toyota. Toyota has created an incredible manufacturing environment, that often has those around them wondering, “How do they do it?”. Their development on the Toyota Production

Initially the workers had only been required to do their own standardized work and had nothing to do with the problem-solving problems. Toyota decided to change that taught the workers how to improve their problem-solving skills by giving them the task to redesign their own work. “The workers were assigned a leader who trained them to frame problems better and to formulate and test hypothesis- in other words, he taught them how to use the scientific method to design their team’s work in accordance with the first three rules.” (Spear, Steven J. pg.

Their principles and practices are very simple and yet they are still evolving over 50 years later. I think that the fact that they could keep all their employees during the 2008 recession speaks to their ability to overcome any obstacle by adapting to their environment. Instead of immediately turning to layoffs they turned to re-training and education. There have been a lot of companies that have tried to duplicate what Toyota is doing, and yet not one of those companies have been able to recreate a success level as high as Toyota. I believe this is due to the length of time Toyota has been in business and practicing these Lean principles. Lean does not happen overnight, it is a company lifestyle. By creating the Lean principles Toyota has held everyone within their company accountable for its success and raised the bars for its competitors to do the same. We live in the 21st century, our world, especially technology is ever changing. There is a constant demand to upgrade and excel at the new latest and greatest product. If you can’t keep up and adapt you will be consumed and fail! Toyota has proven the ability to do this and withstand the harsh demands of the world around them, all while putting their employees