Professional Documents
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During the last 50 years, Toyota has developed from small beginnings into a
company that is able to successfully challenge the top 3 car manufacturers in
the world. They have achieved this not by mergers and acquisitions but by
organic growth through the successful development and application of the
Toyota Production System use of lean tools and techniques. As others have
tried to copy this new way of working, it has in recent years received some
bad press on the back of process re-engineering and down-sizing, where it
has become synonymous with cost cutting. Lean done well, however, “...
involves a far deeper and more pervasive cultural transformation than most
companies can begin to imagine.”¹
What is “Lean”?
Lean thinking drives organisations to focus on adding value for the customer
by the elimination of “waste” and the pursuit of “standard work” (one best
way).
3. Make the work Flow- make the work flow from one added value
element to another by eliminating waste such as errors & waiting or
downtime hence shortening the time from raw material to finished
product.
4. Drive the operation using “Pull” not “Push”- Process work when
it is required by the customer.
This paper shows how Lean, when done well, fits the model of the Seven
Levels of Corporate Consciousness, and how it can make a significant
contribution towards an organisation becoming „full spectrum.‟
Values
Benefits Pitfalls
Exhibited
TOYOTA
TPS (Toyota Production System), then, is the result of efforts to direct all
activities to support the goal of firm survival … It is this focus that enable
Toyota to behave as a natural organism, enabling it to evolve as a truly
emergent system … This is vastly different from the narrow goal of ‘making
money.’
—John Shook Toyota Manager
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The Seven Levels and „Lean‟
G.M.’s sales fell nearly 26 percent from last June when it was
the only automaker offering employee discounts to all customers
and posted a 19-year high. Ford’s sales last month declined 7
percent and DaimlerChrysler’s sales were down more than 15
percent.
At the same time, Toyota’s sales in June rose 14.4 percent from
a year ago, and the company outsold DaimlerChrysler for the
third consecutive month.
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The Seven Levels and „Lean‟
Level 2- Relationships
(Relationships that Support Corporate Needs)
Values
Benefits Pitfalls
Exhibited
Respect Everyone in the organisation has a part to play and a voice in Paying lip-service only
continuing to improve the business
TOYOTA
Respect for people means respect for the mind and capability.
—Sam Heltman Senior Vice President of Administration
Toyota Motor Manufacturing N. America
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The Seven Levels and „Lean‟
Values
Benefits Pitfalls
Exhibited
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The Seven Levels and „Lean‟
Values
Benefits Pitfalls
Exhibited
Employee Individuals are taught how to work together towards common goals
participation and cross functional teams are used to solve more complex issues
The larger team continues to work in „silos‟
Teamwork
Responsibility
The aim is always to level out the workload of the process As the unit aims to work to meet customer
Balance (heijunka) to eliminate overburden to people and equipment. This demand, peaks and troughs not levelled out
Home/ Work allows a business to match capacity and demand and prevent the can cause high demand on individuals to
need for overtime etc. work additional hours
TOYOTA
Every team member has the responsibility to stop the line every time they
see something is out of standard….They feel the responsibility- they feel the
power. They know they count.
-Alex Warren former Executive Vice President, Toyota, Kentucky
The slower but consistent tortoise causes less waste and is much more
desirable than the speedy hare that races ahead and then stops occasionally
to doze. The Toyota Production System can be realized only when all the
workers become tortoises.
-Taiichi Ohno, 1988
Principle 10: Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your
company‟s philosophy
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The Seven Levels and „Lean‟
Principle 12: Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation
Values
Benefits Pitfalls
Exhibited
Sense of Leaders are grow n from w ithin the business so they The structure does not support such organic
purpose understand the work, understand the objectives of the development, so leaders are brought in from
Shared vision Company and are able to teach this to others outside to „make their mark‟
When problems occur e.g. sales reduce, people are not laid off A short term focus only in these
Trust but are found other useful tasks such as working on circumstances destroys trust
improvement activities
TOYOTA:
...the Toyota Way provides an alternative model of what happens when you
align almost 250 000 people to a common purpose that is bigger than making
money. Toyota’s starting point in business is to generate value for the
customer, society and the economy.¹
Principle 9: Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the
philosophy and teach it to others.
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The Seven Levels and „Lean‟
Values
Benefits Pitfalls
Exhibited
Strategic
Beating down the supplier or operating a closed
alliances Companies work closely wit h suppliers and even competitors
shop stifles the sharing of best practice and builds
Supplier to help improve products/ processes for their customers
barriers making competition destructive
collaboration
Employee Developing people to fulfil their potential improves Not developing people to reach their potential is
fulfillment motivation which in turn improves the business a big loss of benefit that is not always recognised
TOYOTA:
… consider the stark contrast between the fortunes of Toyota compared with
those of Ford and GM. Granted these companies differ in many ways, but
most everyone agrees that Toyota has built a sustainable competitive
advantage with its suppliers-as-partners philosophy, while Ford and GM are
suffering as a result of their transaction approach to supplier strategy.
-www.industryweek.com
Principle 10: Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your
company‟s philosophy.
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The Seven Levels and „Lean‟
Values
Benefits Pitfalls
Exhibited
Long term
Developing products/ services that are of benefit to the whole of society
perspective
CONCLUSION
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The Seven Levels and „Lean‟
RECOMMENDED READING
The Machine that Changed the World - James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones,
and Daniel Roos
Catherine Clothier
catherine@valuescentre.com
Tel: +44 (0)1706 824692
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