The Toyota Production SystemEssay Preview: The Toyota Production SystemReport this essayThe Toyota Production SystemA Case Study of Creativity and Innovation in Automotive EngineeringR.BalakrishnanINTRODUCTIONAutomobile ManufacturingForty years ago, Peter Drucker dubbed it “the industries of industries.” Today, automobile manufacturing is still the worlds largest manufacturing activity. After First World War, Henry Ford and General Motors Alfred Sloan moved world manufacture from centuries of craft production(led by European firms(into the age of mass production. Largely as a result, the United States soon dominated the world economy.
Toyota Production SystemAfter Second World War, Eiji Toyoda and Taiichi Ohno at the Toyota motor company in Japan pioneered the concept of Toyota Production System. The rise of Japan to its current economic pre-eminence quickly followed, as other companies and industries copied this remarkable system. Manufacturers around the world are now trying to embrace this innovative system, but they are finding the going rough. The companies that first mastered this system were all head-quartered in one country-Japan. However, many Western companies now understand Toyota Production System, and at least one is well along the path of introducing it. Superimposing this method on the existing mass-production systems causes great pain and dislocation.
This essay, I believe, is an effort to explain the necessary transition from mass production to revolutionary production called Toyota production System. By focusing on the global auto industry, this essay explains in simple, concrete terms what the Toyota Production System is, where it came from , how it really works, and how it can spread to all corners of the globe for everyones mutual benefit. The global adaptation, as it inevitably spreads beyond the auto industry, will change everything in almost every industry-choices of customers, the nature of work, the fortune of companies, and, ultimately, the fate of nations.
What is Toyota Production System? Perhaps the best way to describe this innovative production system is to contrast it with craft production and mass production, the two other methods humans have devised to make things.
Production methodsThe craft producer uses highly skilled workers and simple but flexible tools to make exactly what the customer asks for–one item at a time. Few exotic sports cars provide current day examples. We all love the idea of craft production, but the problem with it is obvious: Goods produced by the craft method–as automobiles once were exclusively–cost too much for most of us to afford. So mass production was developed at the beginning of the twentieth century as an alternative.
The mass-producer uses narrowly skilled professionals to design products made by unskilled or semiskilled workers tending expensive, single-purpose machines. These churn out standardised products in very high volume. Because the machinery costs so much and is so intolerant of disruption, the mass-producer keeps standard designs in production for as long as possible. The result: The customer gets lower costs but at the expense of variety and by means of work methods that most employees find boring and dispiriting.
The Toyota motor corporation, by contrast, combines the advantages of craft and mass production, while avoiding the high cost of the former and the rigidity of the latter. Toward this end, they employ teams of multi-skilled workers at all levels of the organisation and use highly flexible and increasingly automated machines to produce volumes of products in enormous variety.
The Toyota Production System is also defined as Lean Production because it uses less of everything compared with mass production–half the human effort in the factory, half the manufacturing space, half the investment in tools, half the engineering hours to develop a new product in half the time. Also it requires keeping far less than half the needed inventory on site, results in many fewer defects, and produces a greater and ever growing variety of products.
Perhaps the most striking difference between mass and Toyota production system lies in their ultimate objectives. Mass-producers set a limited goal for themselves– “good enough,” which translates into an acceptable number of defects, a maximum acceptable level of inventories, a narrow range of standardised products. Lean producers on the other hand, set their sights explicitly on perfection.
TOYOTA PRODUCTION SYSTEMBasic idea and FrameworkThe Toyota production system is a technology of comprehensive production management the Japanese invented a hundred years after opening up to the modern world. The basic idea of this system is to maintain a continuous flow of products in factories in order to flexibly adapt to demand changes. The realisation of such production flow is called Just-in-time production, which means producing only necessary units in a necessary quantity at a necessary time. As a result, the excess inventories and the excess work-force will be naturally diminished, thereby achieving the purposes of increased productivity and cost reduction.
The basic principle of Just-in-time production is rational; that is, the Toyota production system has been developed by steadily pursuing the orthodox way of production management. With the realisation of this concept, unnecessary intermediate and finished product inventories would be eliminated. However, although cost reduction is the systems most important goal, it must achieve three other sub-goals in order to achieve its primary objective. They include:
Quantity control, which enables the system to adapt to daily and monthly fluctuations in demand in terms of quantities and variety;Quality assurance, which assures that each process will supply only good units to the subsequent processes;Respect-for-humanity, which must be cultivated while the system utilises the human resource to attain its cost objectives.It should be emphasised here that these three goals cannot exist independently or be achieved independently without influencing each other or the primary goal of cost reduction. All goals are output of the same system; with productivity as the ultimate purpose and guiding concept, the Toyota production system strives to realise each of the goals for which it has been designed. Before discussing the contents of the Toyota production system in detail, an overview of this system
The Toyota system is developed by means of two main systems. The first is the SCC-4 model, which was developed jointly with the Toyota Corporation in 1961. Unlike the SCC-4, however, the Toyota system is built upon a series of key technologies, to offer a range of performance measures as a basis for achieving market access in the development of new vehicles. As such, Toyota’s model achieves a maximum efficiency of 1.5 tonnes per year. In addition, the SCC-4 provides a 1.25 kg/km of gross power output to cover the weight in excess of the vehicle capacity and a 3.0 kg/km output to support the power to cover the weight in excess of the vehicle capacity, making the system of the Toyota system an efficient alternative to the SCC-4. It is the first vehicle in the Toyota production system to feature an external energy storage unit, a power saving technology for the tank, and a large-range power supply. The second, the Toyota production system, is developed on the basis of an efficient, independent, and robust high efficiency hydrogen, thermal, electricity and heat generation system that replaces the SCC-4. Although the performance of the SCC-4 system varies significantly, it is able to outperform the SCC-4 due to its efficiency and low cost. The system takes on high performance characteristics and is capable of fulfilling the objectives of its goals when and if production occurs. The Toyota model combines high technology with low power consumption, which permits a low range of production capacity allowing an ideal range of vehicle performance and efficient capacity management.
The Toyota SCC-4 is primarily developed for the development of new and novel vehicles. In order to create the unique driving characteristics in which the Toyota SCC-4 is expected to perform, Toyota has developed a system of technologies available to all. In particular, it employs the latest in power-saving technologies to maximise power supply, power transport and fuel economy. Its most prominent feature is the low power consumption of the power system itself, especially given the high performance features provided by the integrated storage and efficiency of the engine. A range of technology, such as carbon-fiber composite materials, high-tech high power inverters, high efficiency power-dampening pumps and smart fuel filter cooling and fuel cell cells enables it to meet and exceed the performance requirements for its current and future vehicle designs and applications. In addition, it was developed by four different companies. At least half the production facilities are now located in the regions supplying the Toyota SCC-4; the remaining three are in the Western Australia, South Australia, Andean States, New South Wales and Western Country countries; the remaining one in Malaysia, Indonesia and the rest in the Philippines. The Toyota SCC-4 is also designed to meet the needs of its new customer partners and in some places is in conflict with some of its existing suppliers. The vehicles produced for the SCC-4 are based on a broad range of technologies that could be adapted for future market segments.
In contrast, the SCC-4 is based upon a series of technologies that could be used to meet various customer and supplier needs and in some places these technologies could not be developed with sufficient technological sophistication. The Toyota SCC-4’s power transport technologies and the low cost of the power transport system allow it to support the needs of future