"Toyota Corporate Culture: Lessons for Other Companies" by Jeffrey Liker, Michael Hoseus. Toyota Corporate Culture: Lessons for Other Companies Japanese Toyota Corporate Culture

Jeffrey Liker, Michael Joseus

Corporate Toyota culture: Lessons for other companies

Toyota Culture

The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way

Jeff rey K. Liker

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Published with the assistance of the Orgprom Center

Translation M. Samsonova

Scientific editor E. Bashkardin

Commissioning Editor S. Turco

Project Manager A. Polovnikova

Technical editor N. Lisitsyna

Corrector E. Aksenova

Computer layout M. Potashkin, A. Fominov

Preface to the Russian edition

Dear friends, colleagues, comrades-in-arms and brothers in arms! You are holding in your hands a long-awaited work that sheds light on a little-studied and practically unlit field of knowledge. Like the other side of the moon, the existence of which many did not think about, although they assumed that it existed, Lean management or lean production is a poorly substantiated phenomenon, the nature of which remained undiscovered for a long time or was interpreted at the level of shamanism. In my opinion, the study of Jeffrey Liker and Michael Hoseus from the point of view of modern scientific management is equivalent to the revolutionary discoveries of Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Tsiolkovsky…

According to a number of studies, some part (up to 8-10%) domestic enterprises in one way or another practice lean manufacturing. But at the same time, more than half (from 60%) of managers either do not know, or have a very vague idea of what it is. True, about half of those who remain think that they know everything or almost everyone about this, but so far they have not proved their knowledge in any way. So in fact, at least 80%, or even 90-95% of Russian business leaders do not fully understand the essence of lean manufacturing and do not accept the key postulates of this breakthrough concept. And if they declare adherence to this method, it is only because today it is fashionable to talk about this "Moon", study it, draw it, write about it, etc., etc. Unlike us, in developed economies more half of company executives (from 60%) not only know about lean production, but also actively use this method. So it is not surprising that in terms of labor productivity we lag behind these economies - and about the same time as this type of management is less common in our country. There is every reason to consider ignorance or misunderstanding of the principles of lean manufacturing as a flaw in the education of Russian managers.

Unfortunately, we sometimes boast of our ignorance: “What kind of sect is Lin, they invented everything! It is necessary to work well and responsibly, and there is nothing to frighten with overseas words. It wasn't the Japanese who flew into space. But here we have ... ”It’s bad that such (or something similar) can be heard from 5 to 20% of business leaders.

Here we have to agree on terms. Lean - from the English Lean - toned, lean, slender, without toxins, without fat. The objective and basis of the Lean methodology is to involve all personnel in improving processes in order to constantly improve them and increase efficiency, through effective development and maximum realization of human potential, based on mutual respect for owners, management and employees.

The term was introduced more than a quarter of a century ago in the United States in the definition of an innovative concept of management and entered in this form into most languages, including European ones. Lean Thinking - Lean thinking, Lean management. According to leading domestic experts, it is more useful to borrow this term directly through transliteration, since no successful translation attempts have been recorded. The translation option “lean manufacturing”, in our opinion, does not reflect the fullness of the concept, moreover, it is often perceived at the associative level as a purely utilitarian action, far from the meaning inherent in it at Toyota. What is worth, for example, the proposal of one participant in the improvement measures to “thriftly” treat supplies, save on purchases - look for rusty nuts and bolts in the grass: “There are a lot of them here, so let’s put them to work.”

Try to translate the words “innovation”, “modernization”, “cluster”, “car”, “computer” into Russian for comparison ... Not a single native Russian word, everything is borrowed, but no one cares what is borrowed anymore - the words have become native to us . So, I think, it will be with Lin and Kaizen - now the process of introducing terms into the daily use of management is underway.

For those of you, dear readers, who have tasted "Lean implementation" or "Lean implementation" over the past eight years, who know that the first word is the key here, that the process of "implementation" is "breaking through the knee" or something similar, this book will finally help to understand what caused the unsatisfactory results, numerous "Potemkin villages" and sometimes a complete fiasco. For those who have not yet had time to stand on this thorny path, the book will point out how not to repeat the numerous mistakes of their predecessors.

How to overcome staff resistance? There is only one way - you need to understand the nature of this resistance and prevent its root cause: without pressure, there is no resistance, there will be no "introduction" - there will be no rejection. How to convert the potential energy of resistance into the kinetic energy of change, initially turning the vector in the right direction? Is it really possible? Maybe instead of the word "implementation" use the terms "construction", "transformation", "development"? Just changed the word - and you can already feel the difference? And it is important that your actions do not contradict your words, but fill them with appropriate content.

We are used to beautiful slogans about the value of human potential, but we rarely think about what is behind it. Here at the entrance of the plant are wonderful words that "employees are the most valuable asset." We read and rejoice - everything is correct. We go to the workshop, and - my God! - how many violations of this wonderful slogan! Here the workplace is arranged with safety violations. Here, an employee made a marriage and hides the damaged part until the authorities see it. Here the client is trying to get compensation for an insured event, and the manager of the insurance company is his memorized “dynamite”. Why is that? Maybe the foreman is an enemy infiltrator or a protege of competitors? Or is the insurance manager being cunning, pursuing some goal of his own? Everything is much deeper. Since Soviet times, the management of almost every enterprise has adhered to a culture of dualism: we write one thing, we think the second, and we do the third. There are too few enterprises where all of the above coincides.

Liker reminds us of the need for consistency between what we see and what is happening, matching people's behavior and reactions to deviations and problems with what they think about it. At Toyota, the main motto is the strict observance of all slogans: mutual respect between management and staff, joint work on problems and errors, focusing on the causes and refusing to find the culprits. Here, the search and solution of problems is an occasion for scientific research, with hypotheses and experiments, with the right to make mistakes and guaranteed protection.

Too often, in the pursuit of results, we introduce piecework (stimulating not the best human qualities), deliberately moving away from problems, and reducing their solution and prevention to the search and punishment of those responsible. Some caveman orders! And it is not surprising that sometimes the leaders of such enterprises claim that they have already implemented “lean manufacturing”. What do they have to overcome? The step from “I don’t want to know, we don’t need it” to “I know that it is necessary, and I heard something about it, I’m trying to implement it” - they have already done it. The next step is to recognize the gap between “know” and “understand”, then between “understand” and “can”, then between “can” and “do”, and finally, move from “doing the best I can and when I have time” to “I live by this and do not allow the slightest deviation.”

It is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to take these steps and move to a new level without finding answers to key questions: how to select personnel who will share the goals and culture of the company? How to form a culture in which behavior that is contrary to the spirit of kaizen is impossible? How to achieve continuous value addition in the talent creation stream? How to make the goals of the company and employees coincide? Based on what principles and criteria to manage talent? How to build competencies so that employees and the company see and understand each other's perspectives and act together? What is the main thing in the new culture? What features, what behavior and what beliefs is it characterized by? By what external manifestations can you identify a company that has implemented the Lean method? What do employees of such companies believe in and how do they behave in uncertain situations?

You can find the answers to all these questions yourself. But this book provides an invaluable opportunity to save time on “reinventing the wheel”, leaving room for interpretations and versions of the basic laws of Lean culture that any thinking leader can formulate. Well, "the key to start." Welcome to the "new testament" of scientific management in the 21st century!

Alexey Baranov,

President of the group of companies "Orgprom"

Part I What is Toyota culture?

If you bring together people, each of whom performs his duties to the maximum, their capabilities will grow not in arithmetic, but in geometric progression.

Kiichiro Toyoda, founder of Toyota Motor Company

Chapter 1 Toyota's corporate culture is a core part of its DNA

The learning process of the Toyota Production System can be thought of as never-ending. I do not think that I understand it perfectly myself, although I have worked in this firm for 43 years!

Katsuaki Watanabe, President of Toyota Motor Corporation

Why is Lean and Six Sigma not enough?

If you ask a person who knows the Toyota system well to visit and evaluate any enterprise for compliance with the concept of lean manufacturing, it will receive a very low rating, because the expert will not primarily pay attention to six sigma report schedules and impressive savings figures, but to how work is going on in the gemba - is there a flow interruption (is there a waste), are there large repair areas (poor quality evidence), are standard operating procedures being followed, is production based on takt time, are shop personnel involved in the day to day work on the solution? problems, etc.

From the very beginning of its activity at Toyota, it was believed that investment in human capital was the key to success. The meaning of the Toyota Production System is primarily in corporate culture - in how people think and behave, and this is deeply rooted in the philosophy and principles of the company. The focus is on respect for people and continuous improvement.

When Toyota establishes production in a new country, it carefully examines local conditions and how it can adapt its corporate culture to them. It took, in particular, the Toyota plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, USA, fifteen years. Many companies are frustrated that kaizen blitzes and Six Sigma projects produce only short-term and unstable results. They're trying to find what they're missing, so this book describes and explores the DNA of the Toyota Production System.

What is corporate culture (this is what we have in our heads)

People usually have very different understandings of corporate culture. It's not easy to understand what's going on in people's heads. Researchers distinguish three levels of corporate culture.

1) Artifacts and behavior. These are things that can be observed at a superficial level - objects, the physical layout of the workplace, the behavior of people in various situations, written documents. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Rice. 1.1. Three levels of corporate culture

2) Norms and values. Norms are rules of conduct accepted by all. Values are the principles according to which people act. For example, one of the core values at Toyota is the ability to continually identify problems and improve the system.

3) Core Beliefs. What do we really think about the nature of the organization and our role in it? Do we believe that the role of the employee is to contribute as much as possible to their organization in achieving success? Do we think that the leadership has personal interests that conflict with ours, and therefore we must fight for our rights every day? Do we think that work is just a way to earn money for a living, or is it a way to contribute to the well-being of society? Very often, our beliefs are subconscious and difficult to articulate. We don’t even suspect about some and say “It’s the nature of man.”

Thousands of people visit Toyota factories every year, observing the work at the level of artifacts and the behavior of employees. Here is a sample set of questions that visitors asked at the Toyota plant in Georgetown, USA:

What monetary rewards do employees receive for producing high-quality products?

How do you define performance and what indicators do you use?

What is the level of absenteeism?

Do employees object to overtime, especially if they are not warned in advance?

How does Toyota get so many offers from employees?

The Toyota production culture assumes that managers are leaders, and the responsibility of the latter is to train personnel. This is not visible when visiting the enterprise, and yet it is precisely this that is the most important part of the work of a manager. We have not seen such a degree of consistency in the training and socialization of employees in the workplace, as well as a huge amount of work in the field of training, in any company in the world, except for Toyota.

People are the heart and soul of Toyota's corporate culture

Corporate culture is a multi-level phenomenon, rooted in deep and not always conscious beliefs. This cultural basis is different in different countries and can either increase or decrease a company's ability to learn from Toyota. Japanese culture is based on long-term thinking and collectivism, where the individual submits to the group, while in Western cultures the opposite is true, i.e. situational thinking and individualism prevail there. This does not mean, however, that the Japanese corporate culture is unsuitable for Western countries, just that it differs from Western culture and has a pronounced specificity.

We are often asked the question: Can a company outside of Japan learn anything from Toyota, given the fact that Toyota's corporate culture is rooted so deeply in Japanese culture? For most of its existence, Toyota operated only in Japan and did not document its working methods in writing. People simply worked and interacted in a certain way, and new employees gradually socialized into a new work culture through their workplace activities and training. Traditions, attitudes, and methods stemming from the founding fathers were passed down orally, and no written operating procedures or guidelines were created. But as the company grew, it became necessary to extend its organization methods not only to other enterprises in Japan, its suppliers and customers, but also to Toyota enterprises in other countries. This required a written description of the Toyota system. It took almost ten years to create such a document under the leadership of the then president of Toyota, Fujio Cho. This document, titled "Philosophy of Toyota 2001" (Toyota Way 2001), was the fruit of heated debate, about twenty versions were created until it was decided to settle on the last one; it was recognized that this version only captures what can be described as of 2001, but the system itself continues to evolve. This document consists of 13 pages and contains an explanation of the principles presented in fig. 1.2.

Toyota expands on these principles as follows.

4) Challenge. We create a vision for the long term, boldly and creatively solve problems in order to realize our dream.

5) Kaizen. We continuously improve operational processes, constantly striving for innovation and development.

6) Genchi genbutsu. We believe that when problems arise, you should personally examine the place of their occurrence and do it as quickly as possible.

7) Respect. We respect others, make every effort to understand each other, take responsibility and build a system of mutual trust.

8) Teamwork. We stimulate personal and professional growth, share existing development opportunities and maximize individual and collective performance.

Under each of the five fundamental principles are detailed concepts, for example, under the principle of “kaizen”, there are three subcategories: a mindset for continuous improvement and innovative thinking, building “lean” systems and structures, and encouraging organization learning. It is interesting to note that the subcategory "building lean systems and structures" is only at the third level from the top in the Toyota model and is not its central component.

Rice. 1.2. Toyota philosophy 2001

The main problem in expanding the company and working in other countries is the absolute refusal of any compromises in matters of Toyota philosophy. Toyota is convinced that without a strong culture in all divisions of the company and in all countries of the world, it will lose its competitive advantage.

In-Depth Culture Analysis

The question of what world-class Japanese management methods can be exported to other countries has been occupied by theorists and businessmen for more than a dozen years. The book Remade in America answers this question as follows: the hybrid corporate culture that emerged from the Japanese in the United States is not an exact copy of the culture of a Japanese company, although it can be very effective.

In reality, systems involving people are very complex, and only Information system or the communication system is not able to change the whole process. In order for the process to change, people must change, and a person's beliefs and values are rooted in his culture.

Even the same tool or method can have completely different meanings in different cultural contexts. Let's look at what this could mean for executives who want to learn from Toyota how to outperform the competition. Maybe they will hire consultants and visit Toyota factories, where they will see a lot of interesting things. They will see a clean, well-organized production, where all materials and tools are neatly placed in their places and losses due to movement are minimal; workers clearly understand their duties and impeccably observe discipline. But is it possible to simply transfer all this to own production with a different production culture? Will the system be rejected, as it happens when someone else's organs are transplanted to a person? Rather than being a powerful improvement tool, the new approach will additional features management to blame and punish employees. In such cases, the system of "lean production" begins to cause only irritation. Toyota also failed to transfer the original Japanese culture to its operations in other countries. There has always been a new culture, which is a mixture, although Toyota has always insisted that it manages to maintain the basic principles of its corporate culture.

When crossing national borders, additional levels of corporate culture arise - the culture of the locality, organizations, divisions and individual culture. These levels are shown in fig. 1.3.

Rice. 1.3. Culture levels

A particular enterprise exists both in the environment of the corporate culture of this company, and in the conditions of local and national culture. The Toyota Production System at the Georgetown, Kentucky facility will be somewhat different from that at the Princeton, Indiana facility. The localities, history and people of the enterprise, former and present leaders, who leave their mark on the production culture, differ.

As part of Toyota, businesses in the US and Japan have cultures that are different from those of other companies, whether in Kentucky or Indiana. We call this culture organizational culture Toyota. People's upbringings, beliefs, and values differ, but Toyota doesn't need to force everyone to think the same way. It is important to Toyota that there are certain core values and beliefs that apply to working for Toyota and that they are shared by all employees.

It would be a mistake to assume that Toyota has succeeded in developing a unified production culture, even within a single enterprise. Subcultures naturally arise in an enterprise. So, for example, the subculture of shop floor managers differs from the subculture of personnel department employees. For managers, the subculture is different from the subculture of workers, and so on.

Toyota does a lot to develop a common production culture, even between shop floor and administrative departments. For example, employees in the human resources department usually work for some time as shop floor supervisors. It is not typical for Toyota that a person spends most of his time at a computer, thus isolating himself from company employees doing value-adding work.

Achieving uniformity across different levels of corporate culture is a difficult process, and it has always been a challenge for Toyota when it expands overseas. It takes years. When Gary Convis was president of Toyota Manufacturing in Kentucky, he was asked how long it would take for an outside executive to become a true Toyota manager. He said, "About 10 years." Relatively easy to learn official duties, technical requirements, quality and process requirements, what needs to be said, but it is quite another thing to build your behavior correctly all the time. Especially in stressful situations, people tend to slip into those behaviors that they have learned before - take what is called "throat" or practice "micromanagement". Toyota doesn't aim to nurture robots; it strives to nurture employees who can solve problems on a daily basis, optimize shop floor operations, engage in kaizen, and promote innovation, all within a corporate culture of continuous improvement and respect for people.

Problems of the transfer of culture across national borders

East - West: different ways of thinking

Cognitive psychologists study, in particular, the differences between East and West in terms of the way of thinking of representatives of Eastern and Western civilizations. These studies revealed significant similarities in the way of thinking among representatives of various Eastern countries, such as Japan, Korea, China, Singapore, and its differences from the way of thinking in the West.

In this sense, Japan fits well into the paradigm of Eastern cultures, where the emphasis is on harmony, membership in a team, but at the same time on self-control. As you know, many companies now use the so-called "kaizen events", or five-day "debottlenecking" events. A similar approach is used at Toyota, where it is called jisuken - "voluntary self-education." A specially trained coordinator, who is called a sensei, is used. He only asks the group difficult questions, and often refuses to answer them himself when the group wants to know the "correct answer". Group members must have their own motivation to improve themselves by participating in this type of activity, and sensei only guides and advises them in this process. The results achieved are significant as a reflection of achievements in education, and not as a justification for the costs of the event.

The results of studies of cognitive perception of the representatives of the East and the West reflect the following differences:

As for attention and perception, among the representatives of the East they are more focused on the environment, the environment, and among the representatives of the West - on objects, and the former are more inclined to identify relationships between events than the latter;

Representatives of the West are more inclined to believe in the possibility of controlling the environment than representatives of the East;

Where Westerners see stability, Easterners see change;

When explaining the causes of events, the representatives of the West concentrate on objects, while the representatives of the East include the environment in the scope of consideration;

Representatives of the West are more inclined to look for formal logic and resort to it when considering events than representatives of the East.

These differences are fundamental, and knowing them will help explain why Westerners tend to view Lean as more of a set of tools for managing the work environment and achieving measurable results, and at Toyota as ideas for improving and improving processes, which, in essence, are hypothesis and still need to be tested in practice. Therefore, they conduct a large number of experiments on real processes, constantly monitor the results and learn from them.

Problems of carrying out changes in corporate culture in companies

Unfortunately, many Western firms that implement the concept of lean production understand this process only as “adding tools” to a set of tools to reduce costs or “implementing lean production”. This approach reflects a number of trends in Western culture:

Orientation to the short term;

Belief in the ability to control the environment, as opposed to the Eastern tendency to adapt to the environment, which is seen as less predictable and manageable;

The desire of the West to apply logic to understand and predict events, as opposed to a more holistic and intuitive approach in the East.

Therefore, Western companies often see Toyota's achievements as the result of a set of well-defined and therefore easily transferable tools and goals (for example, reducing costs and inventory levels). Actually, there is nothing wrong with using process improvement tools to get concrete results, in fact, this is the point of kaizen at Toyota. However, Toyota understands that when problems arise, the broader cultural context must always be considered, which can make it possible for the problems to recur.

Case 1: “I screwed up” (from the experience of book co-author Mike Joseus on the assembly line of the Camry plant in Toyota City, Japan)

As a team leader, I was sent to the Tsutsumi factory for a month to gain experience on the assembly line and to practice one of the processes. The foremen told us that no one could complete the task in a month, but I really wanted to prove them wrong. My operation on the conveyor was to install a gasket in a recess of the chassis. One day my pneumatic wrench slipped off and I scratched the inside of the niche with a sharp tip. I even gasped in surprise, looked around and realized that no one had noticed this. As you know, an “emergency cord” is pulled on the conveyor, pulling which, you can stop the entire conveyor. We were instructed that if any defect occurs or is found, we must stop the conveyor. It was the moment of truth. My first reaction was to pretend that nothing had happened, since the scratch, most likely, no one would have noticed and no one would have realized that I was to blame.

But my conscience stuck with me and, in addition, I wanted to check how seriously the company takes its own requirements to admit its own mistakes. So I pulled the cord, the foreman came over to fix the problem, and he also showed me how to hold the wrench with my finger so that this does not happen again in the future. He doesn't seem to be mad at me for making that scratch.

We had a small meeting in the afternoon where the team leader briefed us on safety and quality issues and listened to concerns from the team members.

The conversation was in Japanese, so I didn't understand anything until I heard "Mike-san". I became alert and began to listen carefully. Among the Japanese words, I heard a word similar to the English word “scratch, scratch” ... So it is, I got caught, now they will pour me in ... But suddenly the whole group turned to me, everyone smiled and clapped their hands. As they dispersed, everyone began to pat me on the back and shake my hand. I was amazed. After that, I clarified through the interpreter what happened, and he confirmed that I was applauded for having made a mistake and admitting it. Frankly, I was very proud. What do you think I will do if I make a mistake in the future?

In fact, companies trying to implement the concept of lean manufacturing often do not understand the importance of changing corporate culture and do not appreciate shifts in this area. We believe that this is the reason why few companies have actually learned anything from Toyota. A results-only corporate culture impedes change and therefore needs to be changed.

To clarify: Toyota is also made up of people – and people are not perfect

In his daily work Toyota is committed to making the positive elements of corporate culture a reality every day. And she does it very well. Top management strives to develop a work culture in line with corporate principles. They understand that it will take decades, not months.

Unfortunately, the world is imperfect and difficult to manage. There will always be deviations from the system, especially if it is a human system. This happens at Toyota too, but it's interesting to see how it handles deviations from principles.

1) The Toyota corporate system is a unique combination of Japanese culture, the specific culture of the rural areas of Aichi Prefecture, the leadership of the Toyoda family, the influence of American experts, and the specific evolution of the Toyota group.

2) Toyota pursued an aggressive globalization policy, but did it very organically, combining it with internal growth, trying to maintain the Toyota culture in all enterprises abroad.

3) Toyota had difficulty in transferring its manufacturing culture, which has many strong Japanese elements, to other countries with completely different national cultures.

4) Western culture, with its strong individualism, lack of forward thinking, and different approach to cause and effect, presents particular challenges to the Toyota Production System.

5) Toyota has learned from experience that it will not compromise on certain elements of its system when moving these elements to other countries.

6) Toyota continues to better understand how to educate its corporate system to employees in other countries through specific training programs, on-the-job mentoring with strong, consistent guidance.

7) Toyota's success in moving its production system to other countries gives hope to other companies that they can do it too.

8) The Toyota Production System continues to evolve as the company grows, faces new circumstances, and globalizes, but Toyota is far from being as perfect as it might seem.

Chapter 2 The Human Systems Model

The companies that live the longest are those that understand what is unique that they can give to the world, that are not concerned with growth or money, but with excellence, respect for people, their ability to bring people joy. These qualities are sometimes called the soul.

HOW Toyota escaped bankruptcy - taking into account and using the factor of production culture

Many companies now, when the crisis comes, are turning towards lean manufacturing. A rapidly changing global market requires organizations to respond quickly to keep up with others. Only those who react quickly and skillfully survive. But what does Toyota have to do with it? Some say that Toyota was easier because it grew continuously after the end of World War II and was consistently profitable. Would Toyota be able to uphold its lofty and great principles if it were threatened with bankruptcy?

But Toyota did go through a crisis in the late 1940s, shortly after the company was founded. The Japanese economy was in a doldrums, people weren't buying cars, Toyota was having a hard time finding financial reserves to keep the company afloat. Banks demanded to cut costs by laying off employees, otherwise they threatened to close the company. But Kiichiro Toyoda, the founder of a car company, came out of the situation in the spirit of Toyota.

First of all, he gathered employees, explained to them the financial situation of Toyota and told them that in order to survive, the company needed to reduce the staff by 1,500 employees. Mr. Toyoda asked the employees if there were any who could leave voluntarily, and without the need for forced dismissal, he recruited the required number of volunteers. He then accepted personal responsibility for the condition of the firm (although as founder and owner of only a fraction of the shares, he was not in control of the situation) and voluntarily resigned. From his point of view, he let the company and the people down; how could he then manage the firm and use its funds?

In the midst of the crisis, Mr. Toyoda held a meeting with senior management to discuss the future of the company and make decisions that would lay the foundation for its manufacturing culture. Together they committed themselves to the following principles.

1) Toyota will not give up doing business and will do whatever it takes to become a thriving automotive company and continue to contribute to the development of the Japanese economy.

2) The relationship between the management and the staff of the company will be based on mutual trust.

3) The team and management will cooperate to increase productivity and achieve each other's well-being and improve working conditions.

All subsequent actions of Kiichiro Toyoda confirmed the seriousness of his intentions to form the corporate culture of the company. Among the core principles of Toyota since its inception was the principle that working for Toyota is not only a means of earning money. This is a mutual investment on the part of the company and the employee in a long-term partnership in order to develop both sides of the process. Toyota is a learning organization and learned the most profound lessons from that disaster. When Kiichiro Toyoda retired, his cousin Eiji Toyoda took his place, and the remaining leaders agreed on two commitments for the future.

1) They will not allow a situation in which they have to lay off employees again. This commitment has led to the need for preventive measures, such as the creation of a cash reserve (about $30 billion) in case of hard times.

2) They will be very careful when hiring full-time employees to avoid layoffs if the business goes bad. This necessitated a very thorough personnel policy and extensive hiring of temporary workers to smooth out peaks in fluctuating market conditions.

Very often, lean manufacturing is understood only as the elimination of waste in processes. But losses are eliminated by people, and people themselves are not a loss. Toyota has understood this very clearly.

The two most important value streams: product and people

The foundation of Toyota's corporate culture cannot be compromised.

Toyota's corporate culture is an important part of the company's DNA, allowing it to sustainably expand its business in various countries while avoiding the potential threats associated with erosion of its principles. At the center of this model is the employee's value stream, and this must be understood in understanding the reasons behind Toyota's unprecedented success. This success is due, in our opinion, to the approach that Toyota takes with its employees, teaching them not only work in the workplace, but also deep analysis of problems, as well as fostering a commitment to corporate values Toyota.

If there is no employee value stream

The concept of the value stream has already become the most frequently used tool for many organizations, as it allows you to uncover all the losses and outline ways to eliminate them.

This methodology can be used at a conceptual level to understand the value stream of an employee. It usually turns out that in the production of a product, most of the time is spent moving it or waiting in line for processing. What if we could map a person's entire work life since they joined the company? For our purposes, we assume that an employee increases his value when he learns or solves problems. These periods can be denoted by cells of "processing", and all the hours when a person does not study can be denoted by triangles of reserves, i.e. this is a "loss". A person can perform production tasks, but for the purposes of documenting an employee's value stream, if the person does not learn or develop in some way, such time can be classified as waste. It can be assumed that most of the time will be labeled as losses. Indeed, most of us spend a lot of time doing routine work, spending it on breaks, sitting in inefficient meetings. The same is probably true for Toyota, but we believe that Toyota devotes much more time to value-added learning and development than other companies. Even on the shop floor, where workers perform routine production work, they spend a lot of time learning related trades or more complex operations. They learn new skills, such as problem solving and group work, and have the opportunity to practice these skills on a regular basis. They also learn a lot about safety, and they have the opportunity to become a foreman.

At Toyota, the term "system" is used quite often, the product value stream and the human value stream are closely intertwined to form a system that is the DNA of the Toyota corporate system.

Problem Solving Methodology Combines Two Value Streams

The importance of problem solving to Toyota's corporate culture cannot be overestimated. It performs the most important function of connecting the value streams of the product and the employee. Without a practical and continuous problem-solving process, there will be a gap in any company's transformation towards Lean.

The key to success is having a production system that identifies problems and a human system that develops people who are willing to identify and solve problems (see Figure 2.1.). It requires people who can think in the interests of the team, who are not only competent and trained to identify and solve problems, but also trust the leaders of the group, are not afraid to identify problems and are motivated to solve them.

To the center in Fig. 2.1 we have placed mutual trust because it is necessary to create an environment that stimulates the search for problems and motivates people to do so. The Toyota Philosophy 2001 document has a section called "Ensuring Learning in the Organization" that says:

We see mistakes as a chance to learn something. Instead of blaming the individual, we take corrective action and make the situation known to anyone who may need it. Learning is a continuous process throughout the firm in which managers motivate and train subordinates; more experienced do the same with beginners; and team members at all levels share knowledge with each other.

Model of human systems

Beyond the Employee Value Stream: Purpose, Results, and Resources

According to the systems model, any organization must have a clear vision of its purpose, and Toyota in this respect can be an example of a clear vision of purpose, and such a vision is widely shared by the company's management. AT various business Toyota divisions have a set of mission statements that change from time to time, each consistently retaining the following fundamental elements:

Create added value for customers and society;

Contribute to the economic growth of the territory and country where the business is carried out;

Strengthen the stability and well-being of team members;

Contribute to the growth of Toyota as a company.

Rice. 2.1. Problem Solving Unites the Product and Employee Creation Streams

It is clear that a commercial organization seeks to make a profit, and the more profit, the better. But Toyota's tasks are not limited to ensuring the inflow of profit. Toyota thinks in the long term, in which profit is a guarantee of long-term co-prosperity for all who are interested in it, i.e. both the company and the community in which the business is carried out, but it also recognizes that profit is the result of competitive advantage . Competitive advantage arises when a company excels in creating added value for society, and to achieve this, the human value stream must ensure that qualified people produce high-quality products at low cost and just in time.

Toyota's corporate culture resources are:

System of general principles;

Values;

partnerships;

Principles of the production system;

professional qualification;

Appropriate human resources.

Toyota never trusts the HR department to hire and train staff on its own. The selection and training of personnel is heavily based on the broader corporate culture of the company.

People processes and daily management practices

There are several systems for developing employees committed to the ideals of Toyota. And this is not only the task of the personnel department, which is responsible for drawing up study plans. In contrast, Toyota has a tradition of on-the-job training by experienced mentors. Newly hired employees immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the existing production system, participating in group activities in a clean and safe environment, intensive communication led by leaders who help and educate:

1) working in groups to solve problems;

2) maintaining order in the workplace and observing safety precautions;

3) two-way communication and visual management methods;

4) leadership as a way to provide conditions for those who create value.

Rice. 2.2. Model of human systems

Organizational processes and the role of the HR department

Once you have mapped the future state of the value stream, you need to determine which organizational systems will support that stream. For the most part, the organization of such systems falls under the competence of the personnel management department.

At Toyota, Human Resources is responsible for many other things besides maintaining the personnel database and personnel policy, and serves as one of the most influential divisions of the company. HR managers typically enter these roles through rotations from the manufacturing department, so they have an understanding of value-adding processes. The personnel management department is interested in all the problems that arise in the divisions, starting from the brigade level. No one can get a promotion without the approval of HR professionals. The Human Resources Department not only ensures the use of method guides, but also directly participates in the career planning of all employees.

The personnel management department coordinates such organizational processes as:

1) ensuring the commitment of employees to corporate values and the use of tools to save jobs;

2) ensuring fair and consistent personnel policies and practices;

3) educating leaders and rewarding a team approach;

4) hoshin kanri (policy deployment).

This model is not a magic wand - at Toyota it is an everyday practice

Toyota is famous for its production system, and companies around the world are trying to implement such a system in their organizations. For the most part, the results are quite decent in some areas, but in general they are disappointing. Businesses are missing out on what can be called a strong “human system,” which for Toyota is a key factor in being competitive. The technical and social system work together, resulting in a corporate culture of teamwork in solving problems. The tools of such a corporate system are set up to uncover problems, and human systems are designed to attract, develop and engage employees to solve these problems. While not a magic wand, the Human System Model describes how all factors interact to create Toyota's corporate culture.

Chapter 3 Toyota Production System + Local Conditions + Goal = Success

A business that only makes money is a bad business.

Purpose - why are we here?

What is the purpose of a commercial firm? Why do employees go to work? These fundamental questions have quite obvious answers. The company and the employee are united by personal selfish interest. Traditional economists, beginning with Adam Smith, assume that both the management of the firm and the employee reciprocally benefit from such business cooperation. Marxists, on the other hand, believe that the capitalist firm only exploits the worker, and that the relationship between boss and worker is, by definition, conflict.

Toyota executives hold views that differ significantly from those of the forefathers of the economy, believing that there are other good reasons, besides money, that explain the firm's existence and why employees come to work. Ask Toyota employees at any level what they expect from their job, and the answers will be very similar (the results are shown in Figure 3.1).

Rice. 3.1. Well-being built on reciprocity creates a situation of partnership between the company and its employee

The goals of the company and employees are united by the desire for long-term joint well-being, but, as you can see, each of the parties has goals that go far beyond the desire to receive money.

Toyota's goal is to achieve the greatest contribution from employees to the prosperity of the company, in return they receive all the benefits that were promised to them.

An example of building a relationship between management and an employee union comes from an interview with Kiyoshi Furuta, who has been appointed director of human resources for NUMMI, a joint venture between Toyota and General Motors in California, USA. He says:

We discussed each issue many times. First, we drew up a joint protocol of intent. There were spelled out such basic points as production standards and the need for mutual trust (the latter was the most difficult moment). If the trade unions wanted to have a confrontation, then we would prefer that it be directed against the leadership, and not against mutual trust. Management, unions and employees have their own responsibilities. Unions have an obligation to work with management to improve productivity – this is a fundamental principle. In return, we ensured that when a difficult situation arose, management, not workers, would be the first to suffer. With prolonged financial difficulties, the salary of the authorities will be cut in the first place. Then we will transfer what was outsourced to our own production, and only after that we will think about cutting jobs. We do not guarantee the preservation of jobs under any circumstances. Trade unions agreed to such terms of cooperation in order to increase productivity.

Shortly after the start of work, sales fell by 30%, but Mr. Furuta kept his promise and the management did not fire a single employee. It has directed efforts to implement improvements and even received a grant from the government to train workers.

As a result, the company received a loyal employee for many years. Soon the market improved, and Toyota did not have to look for new workers and train them. She already had a loyal and trained workforce who trusted their firm. This had an effect not only for this enterprise, but for the entire company and all Toyota enterprises in the world.

Conclusions on the first part

At its origins, Toyota was a small car company that struggled to survive but always strived for more. It all started with the dream of Sakiichi Toyoda, who wanted his son Kiichiro to do something significant for society. At first it was a family business with roots in a small farming community far from Tokyo. Thrift and frugality as a character trait of the people of Aichi Prefecture are known throughout Japan and are reflected in Toyota in the form of a passion for eliminating waste. As Toyota leaders grew, they poured their ideas and hard work into creating a unique work culture that can best be described as a learning organization. The Toyota Production System is one product of a learning process, but underneath what lies on the surface of the system lies the foundation of a philosophy that is now described in terms of respect for people and continuous improvement.

We began this book with a description of work culture theory, which is divided into three levels: what is seen on the surface, what the leaders of the organization profess, and deeper principles that seem so self-evident that the rank and file members of the organization, perhaps, and fail to articulate them clearly.

Part II Skill Value Stream

The second part looks at the value stream of key people, and this process consists of four stages: attract, develop, include and inspire. People with the right qualities need to be recruited so that they can socialize within the Toyota Production System, they need to be trained as specialists to do their jobs, they need to be involved in the process to contribute to its continuous improvement, and finally they need to be inspired to become dedicated employees of the company and worthy members of society.

The principles of “just in time”, “production in the right quantity”, “delivery to the right place at the right time” apply in the employee value stream. As with any process at Toyota, once a standard is created, the PDCA cycle is applied. Sometimes changes are made and a new standard is created. There are no perfect processes, they are always evolving, this is especially noticeable at Toyota, which is constantly expanding, opening production in other countries, and studying the characteristics of other cultures.

Chapter 4 Attracting Competent and Trainable People

I need a lot of people who have the infinite ability to not know what can't be done.

Henry Ford, pioneering automaker

Unlike the usual, traditional approach to hiring employees, Toyota's approach is that they hire an employee for life. Therefore, the attitude to hiring is extremely serious. The role of the HR department is very high, only it can approve the hiring of an employee. The acceptance of an employee for a vacant vacancy takes place, but since the employee is hired for life, the original position does not play a decisive role. When hiring engineers, Toyota determines how many engineers of various specializations will be needed based on the growth prospects of the company and the filling of vacancies. For example, a decision is made to hire 50 electrical engineers, 60 mechanical engineers, and 20 chemical engineers. They apply to the best universities and select the best graduates who meet the criteria of the Toyota corporate culture. After that, engineers work and study for several years in general engineering positions (for example, CAD design) before choosing a subspecialty. That is, Toyota does not hire engineers for a specific position - it hires an engineer for the future, then invests in his training, forming a new engineer, and decides where exactly he will work.

Funnel Recruitment Model – Many Candidates, Few Accepted

Since Toyota is very picky, this approach seems logical. A factor that helps to attract a large number of candidates at the beginning of the hiring process is the company's high reputation, salary levels and benefits package, which are some of the best in the automotive industry, and this situation has persisted for the past 20 years. Toyota's attitude towards its employees is characteristic, expressed in the phrase “People are the only asset that only increases in value from the moment of acquisition. All other assets begin to depreciate from the moment of purchase.

Conclusion

In the Toyota Production System, recruiting, selecting, and testing people (from worker to president) is a critical part of the employee value stream and the development of Toyota's corporate culture.

Key points that may be useful for your company

1. The Human Resources Department is responsible for a uniform recruitment process across the firm, ensuring that people with the right skills, in the right numbers, and at the right time are found.

2. There is an appropriate process for posting vacancies, assessing and selecting candidates, based on a clear description of duties, responsibilities and qualifications.

3. The candidate is asked to demonstrate basic knowledge in a written (or web-based) test, complete practical learning tasks to assess behavioral characteristics, and complete a probationary period on the job.

4. There is a clearly developed program for familiarizing the employee with the new position, a schedule of classes has been drawn up to familiarize candidates with all the main provisions of the company's internal policy, procedures and requirements. Training and socialization at Toyota begins already during the selection.

5. There is a system for collecting data and monitoring the effectiveness of the entire system in order to organize activities to improve it.

Chapter 5 Formation of competent and capable employees

It is not enough to try; You must first know what to do, and then try.

Edwards Deming, quality guru

Toyota trains its employees the way surgeons train to operate

After Toyota has done a great job of attracting and selecting candidates, can it afford to put them in a bleak atmosphere of boredom and wait for the best to show themselves? This would be a highly inefficient way to leverage an employee's value stream. Toyota has developed a strong and efficient corporate culture over the decades in which employees continuously work to improve processes. Toyota collected data bit by bit about how each operation is performed, how people work together, communicate, and solve problems.

At Toyota, a worker is often compared to a surgeon. Only the workers really add value to the product, so all other employees must do their best to provide them with the materials, tools, information, and everything else they need to perform their functions.

All new employees hired by Toyota go through a well-designed job introduction process and come to their workplace, where they intensively master all the skills and abilities necessary to perform their respective operations. They must enter the team of the brigade as full-fledged workers who can perform their work in a qualified and timely manner. This means that they must perform each operation exactly to the developed standard and fit within the clock cycle. For the manager, this means a correct assessment of the situation when performing tasks, coordinating actions and distributing responsibility, information among a significant number of employees and ensuring that tasks are completed in accordance with the schedule. At Toyota, there is no concept of "unskilled labor." Those who use such a term simply have not bothered to research the operations involved in the process and have not determined how to perform these operations in a highly professional manner. They simply condemn people to work in poorly developed and unstable processes.

Getting started: getting to know the job

The Human Resources department organizes a five-week introductory period for the employee, after which he moves to his unit. The purpose of the introduction program is to socialize the new employee in the atmosphere and culture of Toyota. If we look at the schedule of this process, we will see that only three days are allocated for familiarization with the basic principles. All five weeks are scheduled by the clock so that the time of employees is used efficiently and the newcomer understands that he and his time are valuable to the company. In production, acquaintance is also the initial stage of a three-month probationary period. The schedule is issued to each employee, and it is expected that he will report daily on its implementation. The dating process includes the following components.

Physical preparation for working conditions– employees visit a modern fitness center, where, under the guidance of experienced instructors, they perform exercises that allow them to quickly adapt to the loads, develop the endurance and agility necessary for performing production tasks.

Familiarization with company policy and basic production procedures Senior management personally greet new employees and explain to them how important each person is to the success of the firm.

Production- after the orientation period, the personnel management service transfers the employee to production, where he is trained in specific operations.

Operations training

Training is carried out by the foreman and the leader of the group. At the same time, Toyota uses different approaches with different types of training for different purposes, all approaches are carefully designed.

Rice. 5.1. Ways to develop human resources

Toyota, of course, is not educational institution, so why does she pay such great attention to training? In our opinion, the following factors influence this aspect of Toyota production culture.

1. The founders of Toyota come from the agricultural community. Farmers know that their future depends on how well they teach the trade to the next generation.

2. The traditionally high value of studying in Japanese society. A resource-poor country located on a small island naturally attaches great importance to human resource development.

3. The Japanese have always strived to improve any craft or skill. One need only look at the perfection of dolls made in Japan, at the meticulous design of a Japanese garden or the preparation of a hotel room, to appreciate this aspect of Japanese culture.

4. Practicing monozukuri - the art of manufacturing (manufacturing). The term is often used with reverence at Toyota, emphasizing that monozukuri is the backbone of the company. So, in Japan, national professional competitions are popular, for example, in welding, the speed of changing tools in the press and other professional skills and abilities.

Toyota's greatest emphasis is on on-the-job learning by doing.

Classroom training

During the time of Taiichi Ohno, classroom studies were not successful, but now they are gradually becoming more and more important. The old methods of training with the help of a sensei are becoming less and less applicable, as, due to the sharp expansion of the company, sensei begins to be missed. In addition, classroom training is in many ways more effective, as it allows for more material to be learned and answers to participants' questions that the traditional form of training at Toyota did not provide. Although there is an opinion that the use of the classroom form of classes is the erosion of the company's traditions.

Individual training options

Employees have the opportunity to learn on an individual basis in addition to what Toyota offers in the standard program. Examples of such individual study options can be participation in projects such as Occupational Safety, in a special group to reduce costs. Also, any employee can outside working time to be trained as the head of the quality circle. The course consists of eight hours and entitles you to lead your own quality circle. This is a great opportunity to develop leadership, communication and problem-solving skills.

Another example is the Bachelor of Engineering or Bachelor of Organizational Development courses, which are offered at TMMK, for example, in partnership with five colleges both on site and online. Depending on the learning outcomes, course participants are reimbursed for up to 100% of their study costs.

Employee development in the workplace

This type of training at Toyota is arguably the most important responsibility of all leaders, and Toyota approaches it at a systemic level. Toyota prefers the term "development" because the concept goes beyond learning. Development means acquiring the ability not only to execute operations and make a plan, but also to critically approach one's own work, develop new standards, improve efficiency and quality, and educate others.

Basic skills training

Before going to the workplace and beginning to learn real operations, the worker participates in training tasks that are close to the real job and at a pace that gradually increases to the worker. These training assignments are carried out at a training center known as the Global Manufacturing Center and are standard in all countries where Toyota is represented. Training is carried out using audiovisual materials in national languages. Training takes place on the same program anywhere in the world, and any changes and updates are made to the material within 24 hours.

Standard operations and their breakdown

In most firms, one of the newcomer's closest colleagues is given the task of teaching him how to work, and this mentor decides how and what to teach.

But since the operations are not standardized, the student learns them in the form in which they are shown to him. Standard operations are the basis for creating a reproducible process. They are also the basis for learning. At Toyota, a standard operation is the best way to perform a given operation today and until a better way can be found and validated.

In order to standardize operations, they and the surrounding processes must be stable.

Job briefing method

The development of an employee in the workplace begins with the training of a team member in basic operations. The method originated at Toyota from a US methodology called Training Within Industry (TWI).

Rice. 5.2. Production briefing at Toyota

Now this process is called "Industrial Briefing at Toyota". It is based on two main elements - training materials and teaching method. Both elements are designed with Edwards Deming's famous PDCA cycle in mind. Briefly, they can be represented as follows.

1. Work instructions - a detailed document describing how to perform operations, which is the main training material (usually one page per lesson). The document consists of:

a) Milestones - the actions required to bring an element of an operation to a successful conclusion;

b) key points - points in the operation on which its success or failure depends. Key points are related to such concepts as quality, productivity, cost and labor protection. These are also those components that facilitate the execution of operations (for example, perception, techniques, experience, methods, timing and special knowledge);

c) rationale - what happens if key points are ignored? Why are they observed in this way? What is the reason?

2. Teaching method:

a) prepare the learner;

b) relieve its tension;

c) state the operation (using the standard operation description);

d) ask what the worker already knows about the operation;

e) interest the worker in studying the operation;

f) position the worker so that it is convenient for him to observe the execution of operations;

g) show operation.

3. Demonstrate the operation three times.

a) Demonstrate and explain one element and its main components in order (first time).

b) Emphasize each key point (second time).

c) Justify each major step and key point (third time).

d) Instruct clearly, completely, patiently.

e) Let the worker try the operation.

4. The worker performs the operation four times.

a) The worker performs the operation silently and corrects his own mistakes (first time).

b) The worker explains each element and the main step when performing the operation again (second time).

c) The worker explains each key point when performing the operation again (third time).

d) The worker explains the rationale (fourth time).

e) The employee continues to perform the operation until you are sure that he has mastered it well.

f) Provide assistance.

5. The worker performs the operation on his own, but in the presence of the teacher.

a) Appoint a responsible person to whom the employee can turn for help.

b) Monitor the worker periodically.

c) Encourage the worker to ask questions.

d) Provide additional coaching and gradually reduce the level of support.

Learning at various levels

Above, we talked about the training of line personnel, but we will also consider the issues of training middle and senior managers. As you move up the hierarchy, job responsibilities become less well-defined and less repetitive, but the basic methodology of Toyota's job briefing remains the same.

In order to understand the learning and development strategy for employees at Toyota, it is necessary to distinguish between the roles and functions of each level of the organization. There are four such levels: team member, foreman/team leader, manager, general director/vice president (Fig. 5.3). At each level, managers use their own set of tools and have specific work content for that level, but all levels are interconnected by the problem-solving process.

Training for foremen and group leaders

The basis of the entire organization are standard operations at all levels, for each employee and each process. If deviations from standard operations occur, the foreman or team leader must intervene and, just like any worker, use their problem-solving skills to bring the process back to standard. With this approach in mind, training for line workers, foremen, and team leaders is focused on organizing the workplace, maintaining standards of operations, the Toyota Work Instruction Method, problem solving, and problem solving again.

Rice. 5.3. Learning and Development Strategy at Toyota: Roles, Emphasis and Tools

If the roles and responsibilities of each level and employee are defined, then Toyota very simply trains the employee first in his role, and then moves up one level, etc. At the same time, the skills and knowledge, necessary experience, projects that the employee must perform, etc. in order to advance to the next level.

Manager level training

In most cases, the best managers at Toyota have grown from group leaders. For example, at a plant in Georgetown, USA, each manager assigned a permanent coordinator from Japan for a period of several years, who, as a mentor, taught his ward how to conduct business according to the principles of Toyota. The coordinator literally followed the manager, constantly asking what the manager thought about this or that matter, taught and demanded that he see the situation differently than he was used to.

This was the advantage of the Georgetown plant as a new facility. Where we are dealing with long-standing structure and organization, the transition to lean has to deal with bad work habits. For Toyota, this proved to be a daunting task as it rapidly expanded and built factories in other countries. When factories in China, India, and Russia began operating, Toyota had only a handful of specialists to send to the US as coordinators.

For this reason, curricula and coaching programs have become more widely used.

Rotation of managers and "cross-training" ("development of related professions")

Toyota rotates people at all levels of the organization, which is an important tool for development. It is believed that the rotation effective method training managers in both technical knowledge and leadership and interpersonal skills. It is not uncommon to assign an assembly manager to accounting and a human resources manager to manage production.

The principle of manager rotation is highly valued at Toyota - almost everyone who rose to the level of CEO necessarily went through rotation and worked in at least two other areas as a manager.

CEO and Vice President training

The training of senior management is carried out according to the same principles as the training of other managers. They are also expected to learn throughout their careers. Rotation is also carried out at the level of vice presidents. For example, Don Jackson, senior vice president of a truck plant in San Antonio, Texas, began his career at Toyota in Georgetown, where he rose from a specialist position to director of quality and then to vice president of manufacturing. He was then transferred to Texas and put in charge of starting a new plant. In this position, he was responsible for all aspects of hiring and training leaders and, in a sense, for the entire organization. At the same time, his growth continues through gaining experience in the new plant and through training directly from the Japanese president of the company. Don gained much of his knowledge of the Toyota Production System through first-hand experience under mentorship from Japanese coordinators, and he will pass on his knowledge directly through personal contact to his subordinates. In addition to these non-formal forms of education, there is a management training program.

The Toyota Institute in Japan develops management training courses, and they produce certified trainers who are able to teach in their own countries. An example of such courses is the "Implementing the Toyota Production System in an Organization" course, which aims to train top management to see the whole picture of the organization and use the tools to assess the organization against standards.

It includes the following topics:

A strategy based on the principles and values of Toyota;

Workplace ethics and social responsibility;

Leadership system, logic and motives for decision-making by top management and the role of each of the departments in the organization;

Implementation of the hoshin kanri principle;

Creating value through employee development;

Creating value through the improvement of production processes and work with suppliers;

Results of work for the day and management decisions;

Benchmarking, dissemination and use of information.

In accordance with the training method at Toyota, each training category determines the standard against which it must be compared. current situation. When the standards are defined, the managers go to their workplaces and evaluate the situation according to the proposed indicators. After that, they return to study and discuss the results in a group. But the audience is used only for discussion of information, coordination of assignments and feedback. The real work is carried out at the main place of work of the head.

Toyota has developed standards for all aspects of education and training at every level of the organization. Orientation of new employees includes training in the values of the company, physical training, training in basic skills and knowledge and learning about the relevant production process. Core skills training is coordinated across all businesses around the world, summarizing best practices and then disseminating them via videos over the Internet. Although the share of classroom studies is now larger than ever before, for all positions, the emphasis is still on learning in the workplace.

Chapter 6 Involving Competent and Motivated Employees in Continuous Improvement

There is a better way to do this. Find him.

Thomas Edison

Is problem solving the answer to all questions?

There is no one-size-fits-all tool in the Toyota Production System that would allow you to quickly solve problems, but the problem-solving methodology corresponds to this goal as closely as possible. When a student came to Taiichi Ohno to learn about the Toyota Production System, the first thing Ohno did was give him a lesson in problem solving. It sometimes literally dragged students into the workshop and forced them to stand in a circle drawn in chalk, watching the processes and trying to understand the existing problems. Taiichi Ohno always asked the experts why they were tackling this problem and not any other. Actually, the method that Ohno applied every day when working in the workshop was called “ practical solution problems."

Toyota recently made a breakthrough and introduced a new problem solving method to formalize existing practices and create a single methodology that combines several existing ones. Problem solving is seen as a critical part of Toyota's corporate culture, so Mr. Cho, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Toyota Worldwide Network, personally introduced the new standard Toyota method (Toyota Business Practices).

Toyota's new method is a standardized approach to problem solving, but as with standard operations, the standard does not limit creativity, but serves as a means to develop it. On fig. 6.1. the essence of this new Toyota method is shown.

Rice. 6.1. Toyota's New Method - Improved Problem Solving Process

Day-to-day and near-constant problem-solving is a key factor in Toyota's success.

Everyone at Toyota is busy solving problems

The first step for any new employee or employee who is transferred to a new job is to master the new job. They must acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to perform a particular job, but at Toyota this is only the beginning. A full team member at Toyota should make suggestions for improving operations.

Returning to the Asian culture and the way of thinking at Toyota, which was formed in the depths of this culture, we must remember that the basis of all judgments is the assumption that one can never know exactly what will happen in the future. The world is dynamic and complex, and we must all learn to understand it and adapt to our environment.

Why not involve a team member in engineering work and get two employees for the price of one?

Core Beliefs: human and technical processes are interconnected and dynamic, therefore initial designs are only approximate and subject to continuous improvement by all team members

Results: a high degree of involvement in the real process at all levels ensures the continuous strengthening of the system and a high degree of correspondence between expectations and reality

Rice. 6.2. Corporate Culture of Continuous Improvement at Toyota

To do this, you need the following (see Figure 6.2).

1) Engineers, receiving data from workers directly involved in the process, do their best to organize the process, taking into account the solution of past problems.

2) Team members should track deviations from the standard (using visual aids).

3) Procedures should be written to immediately prevent defects from entering subsequent operations.

4) Periodically analyze the problems that have arisen over a certain period and develop countermeasures to eliminate the source of the problems - before the problems have time to cause significant harm.

5) There must be a process to enable leaders to find larger systemic problems and achieve better performance.

Rice. 6.3. A culture of communication and corrective action from top to bottom

Table 6.1. Toyota's Continuous Improvement Approach

On fig. 6.3 is a diagram of the traditional approach to problem solving. With this approach, it is assumed that controlled system is a set of static processes and with the right manipulations you can achieve the desired result. Top management decides to achieve some goal (guided by data analysis), for this it issues orders. Middle managers working with technicians look for solutions to problems and instruct subordinates to work in a new way and use new technology. The lower managers are supposed to teach the workers the new process, motivate them. We say "as expected" because the training is usually difficult, the result is not achieved, and the attitude of the workers is conveyed by the phrase "Well, again ...".

The starting point for any serious effort to change the current culture of work through individual problem solvers must be a direct link between the vision and its implementation at all levels of the organization. Toyota developed step by step procedures discovering and solving problems and building a learning organization around them. Table 6.1 lists these steps and methods.

1. Engineers and pilot teams create initial standards based on lessons learned from past problems

Engineers start developing standard operations

When a new factory or a new car model is launched on existing plant, designers are responsible for product development and production technology. Then they transfer the responsibility for maintaining smooth production to the plant. Toyota is a manufacturing company first and foremost, and all of its engineers are instilled with the idea that they must support production first and foremost. This support starts early in the development of a new vehicle, in what is known as parallel product design and production technology development. There are a number of software tools available, and Toyota uses them all, but the main actors are people who have knowledge of past models, including those who were directly involved in assembly. In Japan, Toyota recruits new engineers every spring. All of them undergo an internship for 2–3 months in production as ordinary workers. In addition, they work as car salesmen for several months to find out directly what the buyer is interested in. After that, the engineer is assigned to the design department, and a mentor is attached to him. Mentoring involves giving a young engineer a difficult task, such as designing a complex fixture, and watching him do it. If he goes to the right people and asks the right questions, that's a good sign.

Product development engineers are under the Research and Development (R&D) department, while production engineers are under the production department. Usually their offices are located directly at the plant, closer to production. Production engineers work closely with process engineers. They are involved at the earliest stages of product development and bring it to launch in production.

Lessons learned from experience are recorded in checklists, which are maintained jointly by product developers and technologists. The senior engineer responsible for every part in the vehicle maintains such a checklist and updates it after the completion of each program. The checklists are stored in the know-how database, but the process is the same - every detail that has been worked on is entered into the computer. In this way, knowledge is accumulated, and it can be used in each new program.

The pilot team is a way to involve and develop team members

A key part of the Toyota culture is the transfer of responsibility for technology development to the team that does the work. So, for example, with significant changes to an existing model or when a new model is launched, the foreman or one of the team members is relieved of the main duties (usually due to the improvements introduced by the team) and represents the team in the team to launch the new model. Such a team is called a pilot. The representative of the team works with the process engineers, they are assisted by the rest of the team members. This kind of early-stage design work with a high level of ownership is common not only in standardized operations but also in improvements. Improvements consist mainly of proposals to eliminate all types of losses. For example, the launch of the 2006 Camry was the smoothest in the company's history. Downtime during the transition to production of the new model was only three hours, and the quality of the first assembled cars of the new model was the best compared to other cases of transition.

2. Teams work to a standard and identify deviations while refraining from pinpointing blame

Without a standard there is no problem

At Toyota, standards and standardization are the focus of systematic improvement. The most visible standards are associated with the 5S system. Often Toyota sends a representative to one of the suppliers and asks them to conduct 5S in the workplace before they start any initiative together.

The significance of this work is not only that visual standards are formed, but also (and this is more important) that it emphasizes the importance of maintaining elementary discipline. At Toyota, the 5S program is also used as a tool to educate and emphasize the importance of standardization.

Rice. 6.4. Visual standards are at the center of the 5S system

So, for example, at the production site, lockers with consumables are organized according to the 5S method - team members always know where to get gloves and earplugs, lockers shine with cleanliness and are provided with appropriate signs. They also use a mini-kanban system, i.e., for each item, the minimum and maximum quantities of each material are determined. For example, if the minimum number of gloves is specified as ten pairs and the worker takes the tenth, he must, in accordance with the standard, take the order card and put it in a certain box.

Standardized work is the basis for team improvement

The principle of standardizing work is often misunderstood in the context of lean manufacturing transformations. One often hears opinions that the standardization of operations is designed to make robots out of people, deprive them of the ability to think. However, the opposite is true—in the Toyota culture, standardized work is the starting point for improvement.

What happens if each member of the brigade performs operations in his own way? Everyone can suggest some improvement. But everyone performs operations at different speeds. And each has its own quality problems. Will they have a systematic approach to kaizen? Everyone masters the skill in their own way, and not always correctly. But even if the method of performing the operation is very good, no one will know about it. Would such an improvement give satisfaction to the author if it didn't result in better product and process productivity, but only saved the operator a little time?

The use of standards does not mean that they will be the same in all enterprises.

The kaizen process at Toyota includes the concept of "yokoten" - the propagation or propagation of plants by seedlings. As one Toyota employee points out, “Yokoten is about spreading best practices. But for this there are different means. In North America we have NAPJM (Consortium of Japanese Manufacturers of North America). They hold meetings at different factories every three months. Each division talks about its work and shares its experience. But there is no compulsion. We leave it up to the factory representatives to decide what they will use. A corporation cannot order someone to do this or that because it would be contrary to corporate problem-solving procedures.”

The task of team members is to identify problems

The first step in the process of continuous improvement is identifying problems, and all team members must not only be willing, but able to draw attention to problems.

The traditional perception of problems in Western culture, compared with their perception in the corporate culture of Toyota, is shown in Table 6.2.

Table 6.2. Comparing the traditional view of problems with the view of Toyota

Toyota treats the problem simply as a fact - a deviation from the standard. The first explanation is that there was a failure in the system, the main cause of which can be determined by asking five times: “Why?”. The system will not improve if the people doing the work do not report problems, so employees should not be afraid to admit that there are problems.

It is known that culture is formed gradually and it takes time. It evolves largely on the basis of experience and depends on corporate rules and actions of managers. Leaders at Toyota were already, of course, representatives of the Japanese culture, in which the leader fulfills primarily the role of a teacher. It is assumed that the teacher needs patience, the ability to set an example for his students and constantly seek opportunities to mentor. It was very important that leaders with Toyota do not compromise on identifying problems when operating outside of Japan. It played a big role in the implementation of the Toyota Production System in the US. The company's future depended on replicating this aspect of Toyota's manufacturing culture in other countries.

3. Crews limit disruptions in production through "situational" problem solving

Toyota considers problem solving to be a core activity at all levels of the organization. Two types of problem solving are considered - the "situational" method of problem solving is used when individual problems are encountered that are a deviation from the standard to be maintained, and the goal adjustment method is used to set a new standard. The situational method can be illustrated by the following example: if you set the thermostat to a certain temperature, then when it overheats, it will turn off the heating, and when it cools down, turn it on until the temperature is equal to the preset temperature. The target temperature value is not called into question. The target adjustment method involves negotiating the value of the set temperature, by changing which we can improve the system.

When a problem arises in the course of work, then, firstly, it is necessary to localize it, limiting its impact on production, which will allow you to continue working as usual, then you need to ensure that you can work until the end of the day, and also ensure that the established standard is maintained on the the next day. Sometimes the situational method of solving problems is called "supportive kaizen".

Toyota suggestion system supports situational problem solving method

Toyota's quotation system is famous for having a huge number of people involved who help make significant savings. It is quite a common thing if over 90,000 proposals are submitted at the TMMK plant in a year and 90% of them are implemented. Not all of them are significant, but the leadership is ready to try and accept everything that does not cause obvious harm.

The offer system at Toyota is not a suggestion box where employees drop their notes, which must go to the authorities, the latter must implement the proposals and pay the employee remuneration. Such systems only cause frustration on both sides.

In Toyota's corporate culture, the offer system is driven by the employees themselves. If the employee has a proposal, he fills out a form on one page, where he clearly, in an accessible form, describes the problem, the desired state or the goal to be achieved. He describes the possible causes of this problem and highlights the main one. Once the underlying cause is identified, he can suggest countermeasures and their cost, feasibility, and effectiveness. Further, he builds a forecast of the results of the implementation of the proposed measures, describes the methods of standardization and additional measures that consolidate the implementation. After that, he goes to the foreman and offers his plan, as well as the strategy for the "pilot" project or testing his proposal. The foreman either confirms the situation and approves the worker's approach to the problem-solving process, or gives permission to try out the proposal, or explains to the person the Toyota problem-solving method.

If the test is successful, the employee confirms the savings in units of key resources, such as time savings. If an employee has made a process improvement, such as moving a rack or building a shelf, to make picking up a part easier, saving two seconds, they can refer to the quotation system manual and calculate their dollar reward. Then he fills out the proposal form, which reflects that the implementation is completed, and makes a certain amount remuneration in the appropriate column.

The foreman confirms the implementation, results, the fact of standardization in the team for all shifts and approves the application for payment. The form is sent to the Human Resources Department, which is responsible for payments and conducts spot checks on implementation. Once approved, the reward will be paid.

While team members are financially rewarded for suggestions, Toyota's system is different from all other systems that pay for ideas. In most cases, these are small amounts for small offers that progressively increase to large rewards, up to a car. For a time saving of two seconds, the reward will most likely be $20-$25. If you notice any safety hazard and eliminate it, the reward will be about the same. For savings of tens of thousands of dollars, the reward will be about $100.

4. Crews improve standards through a "setting" method of problem solving

Usually, if an employee activates the andon cord, this provides immediate localization of the problem. The team leader receives the transaction totals and determines which issues to move to the next level of resolution. Some cases automatically lead to more detailed consideration of the problem, such as an accident at work or a serious quality problem.

A "setting" method of problem solving may be applied in response to difficulties in meeting the standard, so there is a need to revise it. For example, the stock buffer level is set too low and needs to be increased. Improvements in technology may entail the need to change the standards of operations, which in itself is already a “setting” method of solving problems.

This does not necessarily mean that the team will go through the entire problem-solving process, which can take several weeks, which includes completing the A3 form. This can be as simple as observing an operation, comparing it to a standard operation, and agreeing on a change between the team and the team leader.

In other cases, the establishing method of problem solving is applied when the current situation is already stable, but the spirit of continuous improvement requires setting a new goal. When delivered new target, a new standard is set, there is a mismatch between the current and future state, requiring a new cycle of problem solving. Types of problem solving by stages are shown in fig. 6.5. First you need to reach the standard, which may require solving some problems. A situational problem-solving method is then used to achieve the standard, overcome failures, and ensure that it is maintained. After that, a "setting" method of problem solving is used to achieve the standard more high level. Typically, this sequence of events repeats over an extended period, although in a particular failure case, an ad hoc problem-solving method may be applied on its own to return to the standard, and change work is not necessarily carried out.

Rice. 6.5. Three Stages of Problem Solving

All three levels are important, although most problems are still solved at the first level, at the level of compliance with the standard. This does not mean that the problems at this level are simple - in many cases it is extremely difficult to find the root cause of a violation of the standard.

5. A broad approach to problem solving is a way to improve the system

Continuous improvement is carried out throughout the organization and at all levels of the business, by all employees and in response to diverse needs. All use the same process and terminology as applied to different situations, although broader systemic issues are generally the responsibility of managers.

Sometimes the term "continuous improvement" is understood too narrowly - only small changes in individual operations at the shop floor. At Toyota, continuous improvement means the participation of all people at all levels in the search for improvement opportunities. These can range from large, systemic improvements to incremental small improvements in the workplace. At the same time, all changes, from small to large, are made according to the same problem-solving scheme, although large changes require a more formalized approach, including data collection, analysis and use of reports on the A3 form, and are made mainly by representatives of senior management. , while working groups focus on smaller, local improvements. At the same time, quality circles allow them to participate in larger kaizen projects that go beyond individual processes.

Roles and responsibilities at various levels of the organization are presented in Table 6.4, although in reality the roles are more vague and any employee can participate in solving problems at all levels.

In companies where employees are locked into one job, they are reluctant to discuss improvements in other operations because they have nothing to do with them. Also, when discussing their own work, they become defensive: "I know my job, and I don't need advice on how to do it." It implies "I'm used to working this way and I know how to make this job easier, but I don't want you to interfere and spoil everything for me." However, with the rotation of specialists, the interest in discussing individual operations in the team increases significantly and such “protectionism” is less common.

Changes that are made at the operation level can relate, for example, to the method of feeding the part, setting the tool, various types of mechanization. Most of these small projects can be approved and executed at the brigade level. If necessary, repair services can be involved, which is carried out by the foreman. However, this does not mean that they cannot participate in the other two levels of improvement. The highest level of problem solving in a company is the hoshin kanri process, which will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 15.

Table 6.3. Distribution of responsibility in solving problems by levels

Team leaders and engineers solve specific process and operations management problems. An example of an operations management problem is the shortage of parts on a line.

However, at Toyota, group leaders can also work on problem solving at the system level. An example of a system-level problem is the organization of a material delivery route to avoid disruptions at peak times. Although this is a problem for the transport group, the leader of the group may be involved in their work. At an even higher level, group leaders can participate in the process annual planning(hoshin process), but mostly about setting goals for improvement and in your group and developing daily plans.

Working with people and coaching at the level of foreman and team leader is a key element of the leader's work. Very often this is done informally, as problems arise, but there is also a formalized system for implementing this process. For example, Toyota has an internal audit process in which five vehicles are taken on each shift and inspectors scrutinize them for defects.

Jisuken is a kaizen event or a way to educate leaders

Kaizen events have become a common tool for implementing the concept of lean manufacturing. They are usually organized as five-day events, with learning on Monday, analysis and problem solving on Tuesday; implementation of solutions and experiments on Wednesday and Thursday, and presentation of results on Friday. Improvement activities are quite common at Toyota. In many firms, kaizen activities have become the main tool for implementing lean manufacturing. Some organizations even use kaizen activities to evaluate lean performance and use dollar savings as an argument in demonstrating lean progress to the board of directors.

At Toyota, kaizen activities are held primarily to develop leadership and problem-solving skills. Naturally, this has the side effect of improving production performance. Recently, these activities have become known as jishuken, which means "voluntary self-education."

In the early 2000s Toyota's supply chain began to show signs of weakening due to the rapid increase in demand. Toyota used this situation as an additional opportunity to instill management skills in its managers. All managers were sent to supplier enterprises for two weeks to participate in jishuken activities. In the first week, they focused on improving individual processes. Toyota and supplier managers worked side by side, interviewing team members, identifying losses, making improvements.

In the second week, they held a jishuken training for the management of the enterprise, which dealt with the broader issues of managing a manufacturing enterprise - systemic kaizen.

Leaders encourage and develop kaizen through leadership, building trust and discipline

We can observe an atmosphere of distrust in many companies where the strategic direction is the work of a special group of technologists and "expert managers" who must think through all operations and impose their ideas on the performers. This approach was the basis of Frederick Taylor's theory of scientific management in the early twentieth century. He believed that engineers could find the best solution for any problem. With this approach, the corporate culture of "us against them", described in the previous chapter, is formed. After that, complaints are heard that the improvements that were taught to employees are not fixed. Since shop workers do not have a sense of ownership, consolidation and improvement can only go by force, with constant monitoring and application of rewards and punishments, which ensures that the proposed standard is maintained at the required level.

This corporate culture still exists in many organizations, even those that have begun to transform according to the principles of lean manufacturing. At the same time, they talk a lot about such useful tools as Six Sigma, some organizations are chasing the number of black and green belts and the number of completed projects. Teams of experts are created to solve all emerging problems. We ask them, “Would it be better for you to have a few experts solve problems, or to have a whole army of people in your organization doing it?”

Educating employees who are effective problem solvers cannot be done very quickly, even when using all the methods described. This process is characterized by constant struggle, requires hard work. Mike Joseus recalls the lessons he learned from Japanese coaches:

Our production was working at full capacity, but we could not fully satisfy the demand, so every effort was made to fulfill the plan. Once the equipment failed and the conveyor stopped for 10 minutes. A group of repairmen and engineers managed to get the line up and running, and we began a five-why discussion when we were told that other equipment had broken, causing the line to stop again. As a "super manager", I wanted to rush to the scene of the accident to investigate (i.e., "put out the fire"). My Japanese mentor literally grabbed my sleeve and ordered me to stay and go with a team of repairmen and engineers to our premises to complete the A3 problem solving cycle. “But production is worth it,” I begged him. “Nothing, nothing,” he said, “to get to main reason failures are more important than finding a workaround. Let someone else run the line while you look for the root cause of the failures.” Psychologically, it was very difficult.

Thus, any problem at Toyota is seen as an opportunity to learn how to solve problems.

The cycle of continuous improvement goes from standardization to continuous improvement, repeated over and over again, and this activity is very difficult for Toyota employees, but they also apply this approach in their personal lives. In the next chapter, we will look at how team members bring the practice of kaizen from the workplace to their personal and social lives.

Key points that may be useful for your company

1. Standards and standardized methods are developed for all operations, and visual methods are used to identify deviations from the standard.

2. Methods for identifying problems are applied, improvements are fixed and consolidated in new standards.

3. Team members deal with problems on a daily basis, which is part of their job responsibilities.

4. Employees at all levels learn how to solve problems, always in practice.

5. There is a system in place for documenting and sharing best practices throughout the organization, although best practices are not enforced but instead are applied very selectively and adapted on a case-by-case basis.

6. Support systems are in place, such as quality circles and a suggestion system, to encourage team members to both solve problems and improve.

7. The kaizen process and associated learning at a deeper cultural level is often more important than the concrete results achieved during the implementation of projects and activities.

8. Both small process improvements and large system improvements are made, but a large number of small ones are more valued than a small number of large ones.

Chapter 7 Fostering Commitment to the Company, Family, and Community

Individual commitment to group work is what makes successful work in a team, in a company, in society, in civilization.

Vince Lombardi, football coach

What it means to be committed to Toyota

Toyota is trying to develop not only the mindset of its employees. Feelings are just as important. From the very beginning of its existence, Toyota saw itself not only as a company that makes money, but also as a social institution. It recognizes its role in the lives of its employees, in the life of the community around the enterprises, society as a whole.

The unique sense of combination of hard work, trust in the individual and commitment to the company that employees experience with this approach is hard to find anywhere else in the industry. Toyota managers who have been poached by competitors rarely find such a favorable atmosphere anywhere else.

At this stage in employee value stream development, Toyota is building people who work standard operations, improve standards by solving problems, and feel like part of a team. It would seem, what else does Toyota need?

Stimulate the personal and professional growth of employees

In his book The Toyota Way, Jeffrey Liker noted that Toyota's approach to employees is characterized by a desire to respect, set stimulating goals, and promote personal and professional growth. In the Toyota culture system, respect for the employee means striving to promote growth and unlock potential to the greatest extent possible. A person is not inclined to grow if he is not very anxious, doing routine work, and he does not have goals that require tension. If Toyota asks an engineer to complete a project to reduce costs by 70%, then it sets a goal for which the person must “give the best”, and this leads to personal growth.

Over beer and sushi, Jeff Liker talked to one of Toyota's managers about this and asked him if he felt too much pressure due to the fact that they constantly face difficult tasks. The manager replied that it was true that he constantly felt such pressure, but despite this, when the goal was achieved, there is a feeling of satisfaction, and this makes working for Toyota interesting.

The book "The Tao of Toyota" dealt with the Japanese principle of hansei, which means "thinking." This is more of a concept from Japanese culture, and not just a Toyota principle. Hansei has three key components:

1. A person must understand that there is a gap between what is expected and what is achieved, and be prepared for negative consequences.

2. A person must voluntarily accept personal responsibility and feel deep regret in case of a mistake.

3. The individual must choose a specific course of action to improve.

In the Toyota production culture, hansei is seen as an essential component of kaizen. And kaizen is driven by a person's inner desire for improvement. A person is not satisfied with the existing state of affairs and aims to improve it. At the same time, even the successful achievement of the goal does not mean that now the process has become 100% perfect. When thinking, you can always learn new useful lessons for yourself.

The red line in the history of Toyota is the principle of the importance of not being afraid to get your hands dirty. Toyota Motor Company founder Kiichiro Toyoda distrusted engineers "who didn't have to wash the dirt off their hands before eating." Gary Convis explains how much Toyota values working on the shop floor and being a part of value creation as a team member:

The success of the group is always more important than the success of the individual. Employees need to understand this. You need to put "we" before "I" ... Toyota is not the place where big conceit is appropriate. If you have too much self-importance, you will not make a career at Toyota.

The Importance of Family and Society

It's amazing that Toyota as a company is so focused on results, cost reduction, and productivity improvement that it expends so much energy and energy building sustainable relationships with the communities in which its operations are located. The public relations department in Georgetown is a good example of how Toyota cares about its employees and their families, even though this investment is difficult to measure in concrete amounts. The sole purpose is to help the needy members of the team. The public relations department is a division independent of the personnel department, it has its own chief and a staff of five employees. The sole task of the department is to carry out the task described above.

This includes, for example, such tasks as finding housing for family members of employees who do not live in the city, if they come to visit a sick child; providing interest-free loans to employees whose homes were damaged by fire or flood; assistance in organizing the funeral of the employee's family members; provision of other social benefits. It may seem that all this is the responsibility of the human resources department, but the work of the department goes beyond this, giving the work with the employee the character of personal involvement, such as visiting a funeral home or visiting a sick person.

One of the employees of the department recalls the case when a worker's family member died. Previously, this worker had an unfriendly attitude towards the company, but at the end of the funeral, with tears in his eyes, he told an employee of the department who was present at them that his attitude towards the company had changed radically. As you can see, a personal approach to a person often helps to achieve a positive attitude towards the company much better than any other actions.

Toyota evaluates the maturity of companies by the level of development of its internal and external relations. An immature company focuses only on itself and its profits, while a more developed company views itself in a larger context. This process is illustrated in Fig. 7.1.

Rice. 7.1. Expanding the reach of Toyota values

The fact that Toyota is spreading its values outward creates a win-win situation for everyone involved. Very often, successful companies like Toyota are accused of having ulterior motives when these companies provide assistance to society. They are told: “They only serve the community to earn political points”, “They only care about the environment because it helps them in business.” Toyota responds to such criticism by citing its stated goal as reflected in the company's corporate culture: "Mutual, lasting well-being." Toyota does not deny that in doing so it is moving towards its corporate goal, but it is doing much more by sharing its success with all stakeholders.

The role of the company in the life of the employee and his family in Japan and in the United States differ significantly, especially in terms of what is expected of the employee. So, for example, in Japan, it is considered commonplace that newly recruited employees live in hostels for the first time, and then move to housing owned by the company. There are also corporate medical institutions and fitness centers. The company is actively involved in many aspects of the life of employees outside the enterprise. Workers are expected to work a lot of overtime, many have to travel frequently on business trips at home and abroad. At the same time, they are forced to live apart from their families.

Japanese employees who were sent to work in the US at the TMMK facility realized that Americans are more attached to their families and more clearly separate work and personal life. Therefore, Toyota in the United States began to do a lot with an emphasis on the family, which is not typical for it in Japan. Here are some of the additional services that Toyota provided to US employees:

Children's institutions on the territory of the company;

Family fitness centers with a full range of equipment and conditions for tennis, baseball, basketball;

Flexible working hours for office workers;

Shortened working hours for employees with small children;

Provision of work to family members of employees during the summer period or in their free time;

Family picnics in the local park.

Community (work in the territory where the enterprise is located)

Toyota distinguishes two types of participation in the life of society in the territory closest to the enterprise. The first is direct financial assistance where the company sees fit. The second is to encourage the employee to use his time and abilities for the benefit of society.

When investing money and other resources, Toyota actively avoids being caught in the middle. public attention. Contrary to the opinion of detractors who claim that Toyota seeks to gain political influence, Toyota is trying at all costs to avoid influencing local politics. Toyota tries to maintain good public relations while remaining largely invisible.

How to keep a team of trained employees

Attracting and retaining the best and brightest is the motto of many companies. For Toyota, this motto can be extended as follows: "Attract, shape and retain the best and brightest."

The best way to understand Toyota's employee retention performance is to look at three categories of people: 1) manufacturing workers; 2) foremen and middle managers; 3) top management.

1. At the time of this writing (2008), the downsizing rate among production workers across the industry at North American plants was 2.5%, while at Toyota TMMK it was 1.7%.

2. Team leaders, deputy managers, and Toyota managers themselves are in high demand in the labor market as lean consultants and lean transition specialists in enterprises undergoing lean transformation. Despite the ever-increasing need for lean professionals, Toyota manages to retain 98% of employees in this category. They prefer loyalty to principles over higher pay.

3. In the senior management group, staff turnover is also extremely low, especially among those who are formed as leaders at Toyota. When Toyota began operating in Kentucky, it had an agreement with the state that it would hire 95% of its employees from Kentucky and only 5% from out of state because it needed the auto industry. There was a period when there was a particularly high demand for lean executives, and during that period, turnover in this group at TMMK was a problem. However, after that, the problems were solved, and now the share of reduction in the number of personnel is less than 1%.

Toyota believed that the employee's value stream would meet the needs of the company, but it turned out that two factors came into play at the same time that complicated the situation: the exodus of leaders from Toyota to other organizations and the growth of internal demand due to the construction of new enterprises in the United States. The number of employees at Toyota plants in the United States has grown from several thousand in the early 1990s. up to 40,000 people by 2008

Toyota began to actively look for leaders outside, so, in particular, TMMK accepted many leaders from General Motors and Ford, who demonstrated the necessary set of competencies in their work. These executives were able to assimilate into the Toyota culture, although it required them to work hard, “learn the system,” and demonstrate their knowledge and skills in practice.

Dedicated Toyota Employees Can Be Developed Outside of Japan

We are often asked: can the system work in non-Japanese companies? Of course, the Toyota Production System originated in Japan and largely reflects Japanese culture. In a way, it is foreign to the West. On the other hand, there are examples of Americans who are very committed to Toyota methods and fit in perfectly with its manufacturing culture. Here's what you can say about these people. They are:

Highly passionate about their work;

Confident in their abilities;

Acquired exceptional skills in problem solving and process improvement;

Possess a number of "soft" teamwork skills - listening, telling, coordinating, stimulating, supporting, positively resolving conflicts;

Consider themselves part of Toyota and are proud to work for such an outstanding enterprise;

Have a tendency to reflect on themselves and their weaknesses and strive for self-improvement;

They feel it is their duty to teach others what they have learned at Toyota, both on the job and in their spare time.

Conclusion

The value stream of an employee is a continuous cycle during which an individual's abilities develop, his degree of confidence and commitment to the company increases. The success of the employee equals the success of the company and vice versa. Toyota is not satisfied with being a successful company. Toyota considers the maturity of any company based not only on the contribution to its financial success, but also on the contribution to the members of the team, the inhabitants of the territory where the enterprise is located and to environmental protection. She also evaluates herself by the degree to which employees are committed to the company. Toyota challenges all employees to improve problem-solving abilities, develop the ability to objectively evaluate facts, improve processes, and apply the skills acquired at the firm in personal and social life.

Key points that may be useful for your company

1) The highest degree of development of an employee is devotion to the ideals of Toyota, its values, application of acquired knowledge in personal and social life.

2) The current flow of creating skilled employees is not a linear process, but a process that is more like a spiral, the turns of which are repeated and lead to an ever deeper understanding and greater commitment to the ideals of the firm.

3) In the US, Toyota has a system that maintains a work-life balance where the worker's family is seen as part of the team. This is done in order to adapt to American culture.

4) There are systems for both financial participation in local charitable activities, and systems for the personal participation of Toyota employees.

5) Improvements in the field of environmental protection are included in the list of key performance indicators (KPI) and are mandatory for all departments of the company.

Conclusions on Part II

The culture of Toyota is a continuous cycle of revision and renewal of the systems described above. Given the significant investment that Toyota makes in the development of its employees, it is understandable that Toyota aims to achieve 100% commitment of the company's employees and looks forward to hiring employees for life.

Visitors to Toyota factories see something unusual, such as being very clean and the employees friendly and engrossed in their work. This may seem surprising, given the monotony of work. When operations are repeated every 55 seconds, it would seem that the brain should be completely switched off. But the visitor does not see all the many years of work that has been done with employees to form their attitude towards the company and their work. Investing in such work pays off for both parties.

It is clear to Toyota in Japan that long-term investment in employees is not even on the table. This is important to remain competitive in the long term, and it is the responsibility of management. On fig. II. Figure 1 shows that behind this or that action, visible to the naked eye, there is a deep understanding of the fundamental values of a person and his positive attitude towards the company. These "eastern" principles were instilled in Americans and are the basis of the company's production culture, which must exist wherever it works.

Rice. II. one. Analysis of corporate culture

Part III Processes that support a person

If it were necessary to express in one word the reason why mankind has not yet realized and never realizes its potential, this word would be “conferences”.

Dave Berry, columnist and satirist

At the heart of the Toyota Production System is the principle of developing employees who are determined to continually improve the way they do their jobs. We call the process of developing such employees the “employee value stream”. Employee development does not happen in isolation. There are a number of factors that are constantly at work:

Working groups providing continuous learning and team problem solving;

A clean and safe workplace that provides physical and psychological comfort of work, which allows team members to concentrate on solving more important production issues;

Communication in both directions, providing feedback to both team members and leaders, allowing them to improve themselves and processes;

"serving" leadership (principle of leadership as service), supporting, teaching and open to communication.

Human-Sustaining Processes help a team member learn on the job, do their jobs safely, and solve problems.

At Toyota, this assistance comes primarily from the foreman and teammates. There are a number of reasons why the entire Toyota system is built with continuous employee support and development in mind.

1) When surplus stocks are liquidated, a number of problems that have not been solved before are exposed. Often these are very serious problems leading to a stop in production. The pressure on all employees and workers is increasing as they have to work in more complex conditions that require a high degree of organization, making often risky decisions, and increased accuracy of all actions. Under these conditions, the help of colleagues and the team becomes very significant.

2) The prevailing opinion at Toyota is that a team is always better at solving a problem than an individual is because the team can come up with more ideas and come up with more solutions. The role of the leader in the team is to coordinate the discussion of problems, follow-up further action, development of problem-solving abilities of team members.

3) Employees develop at Toyota by learning from their colleagues, foremen, group leaders. The latter undergo special training in the methods of teaching the profession and are obliged to train members of their teams.

4) Employees like the social approach to work - they are less motivated if they have to work in isolation, and the employee selection system at Toyota helps to recruit those employees who are more inclined to work in groups.

There is an opinion that teamwork is less efficient and effective, that even simple tasks are overly complicated and slowed down by approvals, but Toyota is working purposefully to improve the efficiency of teams, in particular by creating a culture of clear definition of roles and segregation of duties.

Chapter 8 Working Groups and the Team Way to Solve Problems

There is no doubt that a small group of thoughtful and committed people can change the world. In fact, that's how the changes happened.

Margaret Mead, anthropologist

Crews and work groups are the basic units of the Toyota organizational structure

Toyota is renowned for its ability to work with teams, ranging from teams and quality circles to "modular development teams" for product development. Teamwork, apparently, can be attributed to those "secrets", along with the problem-solving methods that characterize Toyota. However, it is not a panacea that solves all the problems of transformation according to the principles of lean manufacturing.

There are different opinions about teamwork. On the one hand, it is considered almost blasphemous to say anything negative about team work, on the other hand, there is an opinion that such work is the source of much waste and inefficiency and reduces the role of the individual to some kind of average value.

Toyota recognizes that group work and meetings can become inefficient and less efficient for individuals. Therefore, countermeasures are taken, which include, for example, training managers to coordinate processes, solve problems in teams. It's safe to say that the Toyota Production System wouldn't function so well without high-performance teams on the shop floor.

It is useful to consider two main roles that teams can play. One is supporting people to do their jobs, and the other is solving problems to improve processes.

Working groups carry out day-to-day work and in the process seek opportunities for continuous improvement in the way work is done. They are part of the organizational structure of the company and are part of the hierarchy. In the workshops, small groups of five to seven people report to the foreman, and several such teams report to the group leader. Design offices have a similar structure - a small group of engineers reports to the lead engineer.

Problem solving groups are often created on a temporary basis and are usually not reflected in the company's organizational chart. These are special groups, quality circles, temporary cross-functional teams created to solve specific problems, permanent committees. Most often, they deal with problems that require overcoming organizational barriers, such as problems with the passage of materials through the stages of stamping, welding, assembly.

These two groups are not mutually exclusive. Working groups also meet, solve problems, and sometimes act as problem-solving groups. And some problem-solving teams may operate almost permanently, such as pilot teams to prepare for the production of a new car.

There is also a third type of team - these are the so-called "informal groups". They are not part of an official structure and bring together people of interest, such as sports fans or lovers of antique cars. Some informal groups may appear to be detrimental to the organization, for example a trade union may pose a certain threat to unstable firms.

For Toyota, all these groups are of great importance. A person must have a sense of belonging, and this important function can be performed by small groups, both formal and informal.

Organizational structure Toyota: flat structure and optimal control scheme

When we talk about organizational structure, we often imagine a hierarchy and a system for mobilizing employees to achieve the desired performance indicators at the lowest cost. At Toyota, teamwork means solving problems using horizontal connections. For Toyota, creating the ideal organizational structure means:

Ensuring a complete understanding of the goals of the organization by all employees, especially managers;

Providing an integration function between various departments, departments, groups, etc.;

Organization of joint work of functional specialists in such a way that they can deepen their special knowledge and improve standards in their specialty;

Ensuring rapid decision making and unhindered flow of information;

Ensuring the achievement of mid-term and long-term business goals.

Toyota strives to build a relatively flat organizational structure while maintaining team sizes that allow them to work effectively in solving problems. It is considered a loss if the group is forced to go up one or two levels higher or contact maintenance or engineering services on issues for which they themselves have sufficient competence. This is a distinct advantage of a flat organizational structure. Another advantage is the flow of information. The fewer levels information has to go through, the faster it reaches and the less distortion.

Rice. 8.1. The ideal team management scheme

Typical corporate departments such as Human Resources, Quality Assurance, Engineering also need to deeply understand the work of the teams and continuously assist them in creating value for the customer. There are a number of systems for this.

Interestingly, there are a number of differences between this structure and those in most organizations:

1) the role played by the foreman at Toyota is not seen anywhere else;

2) support services only communicate company policy to employees, and do not help departments on a daily basis, which is what we see at Toyota;

3) lower-level managers in other organizations solve acute problems, maintain discipline and embody the will of the leadership, and do not provide leadership, coaching, training and planning assistance to team members.

For Toyota, it is important to have a management structure that provides the necessary trust and coaching, while at the same time enabling rapid decision making and rapid communication of information. This is achieved through three features of Toyota:

1) the use of a matrix organizational structure;

2) a decision-making system based on clear decision-making standards and a well-defined role and function of the foreman;

3) According to the Toyota standard, foremen must spend 50% of the time on the line, participating in the process, and the remaining 50% off the line, responding to line stops, coaching, assisting team members and solving problems.

Note. CHK - team member

Rice. 8.2. Teams and work groups are the basic units in the Toyota structure

How Working Groups Work

The structure of the working groups is described in some detail in The Practice of the Toyota Tao: A Guide to Implementing Toyota Management Principles.

It contains a five-page table that lists the typical tasks performed by a team member, foreman, and team leader during a work day and provides a detailed picture of the formal roles and responsibilities.

An illustrative example is one of the foremen from the TMMK plant, who worked for five years at the enterprise in this position on the instrument panel assembly line.

The woman, who joined Toyota as a simple worker, studied all the operations for which the team was responsible, while demonstrating leadership qualities. She then trained as a foreman, and was enthusiastic about Toyota and its production system, which, in general, is typical for foremen at this company. She tells how in emergency situations the foremen reacted quickly, took on various functions that the situation required, how the leader of the group, the “boss”, came to the rescue and did the assembly on the assembly line himself. Quality has always been at the forefront, even during a crisis, established rules were in place, the visual management system worked and helped to determine the sequence of actions, there was no panic and “fire fighting”, all team members were well trained in how to follow all procedures and work together even sacrificing your breaks.

Any Toyota foreman could tell stories like this. These are the days that remain in the memory for a lifetime, and it becomes clear to a person why he wants to work for Toyota. Such situations unite the team and instill confidence in each other among colleagues. For Toyota, this is the result that pays off the investment made in people.

Several types of problem solving groups

In addition to the teams that perform the mandatory daily work, there are several other types of teams that meet in meetings or work together to solve problems. Examples of different groups and their scope:

Working groups (teams);

Quality circle teams;

Various production committees (teams);

Group leader teams;

Factory commands;

Continent teams;

International teams.

Project teams are also a familiar tool at Toyota. Such teams include representatives from various parts of the organization to implement improvements. The best example is a pilot team used to launch a new car model. Designers, technologists, production representatives (foreman level), representatives of quality services, suppliers come together to launch a new model, from concept to production. The old approach involved submitting the design to production for approval after the design stage was completed, which led to a lot of rework and technical changes.

Various groups hold a large set of meetings. Table 8.1 shows most types of meetings held at the Toyota TMMK plant in the USA.

How Problem Solving Groups Work (Example)

As with working groups, abstract descriptions do not give a sense of what the problem-solving group does at Toyota. Problem-solving teams are carefully selected, trained in problem-solving techniques, and then strictly follow all procedures. As an example, we will take a model quality circle project and follow it from beginning to end. The results of the work of the quality circle are usually summed up in an A3 report.

Participation in quality circles is voluntary. One person or small group must recognize this need and be willing to organize an improvement project. They should formally request support and state the need for a leadership facilitator (“sponsor”) to provide direction, enable data collection, and provide the necessary resources to implement countermeasures. Teams appoint a leader who must receive special training in team coordination and problem solving at Toyota. In this case, the leader of the quality circle for the first time in her career was Renée Brown. She worked at the local supermarket metal products as an account manager and joined Toyota in late 1999 as a temporary worker, and in 2002 she became a full-time member of the assembly department. Then René was offered a new role in the assembly department. While Renée enjoys these numbers and key performance indicators rising, she says she enjoys working with someone and seeing the fire in their eyes when they realize they can make a difference. Of course, this experience allowed Rene to learn a lot more about Toyota and understand the method of problem solving more deeply. As a result of her work in quality circles, she moved up the employee value stream and increased her value to Toyota.

Table 8.1. Examples of meetings held at TMMK plants (USA)

From the life of a quality circle (narrated by Rene Brown)

I wanted to learn something new and therefore took part in the quality circle. My team performed an operation where injuries occurred; we thought we could do something to fix the situation. While doing this particular job, people injured their shoulder, and we were given permission to form a quality circle and address this issue. We took turns doing this operation and watched each other; we have taken the best from everyone and created a new standard to prevent injury. We then monitored this operation to make sure we actually solved the problem. The positive impact on the health of our team led me to the idea of quality circles, and I decided that I wanted to try myself in the role of a leader.

Then the assembly was increasing the pace of production of the new Avalon model and there was a problem with installing a rear amplifier (the metal part to which the bumper is attached). You had to wield a hammer to hammer parts into the machine (see Figure 8.4), which meant ignoring the root cause of the problem. Some team members from different lines got together and discussed it, and someone suggested starting a circle to solve the problem. We took the kids from an existing group called the Super 5, added a few more, and unofficially became the Super 7. In addition to me, our team included Crystal Brewer, Steve Denis, Chris Harris, Carl Hogg, Dave Gafford and Marvin Robbins.

We started the process of solving the problem by defining it more clearly. The problem was objectively described as follows:

442 times a day we encountered a bad rear amp seat on the Avalon;

This process resulted in one major injury;

Had to reject seven taillights costing $323.28;

The conveyor was stopped with an andon cord an average of 650 times per shift.

We set a goal to reduce the number of cases of poor fitting of the rear amplifier by 90% within the next three months. Here we have applied the genchi genbutsu technique. We all went to observe the process to see with our own eyes what was happening. After observing the problem at the source, we were able to draw a fishbone diagram of the possible causes (see Figure 8.3), and then we began to narrow down the possible causes to a number that we could work with.

Rice. 8.3. Cause research

We narrowed down the possible causes to five that we wanted to investigate, so each team member had to deal with one of them: go and see and determine if it was the root cause (see Table 8.2). I was responsible for checking that the standard was met and that all operators were properly trained and followed the correct installation procedure in the same way. Everything was in order and we moved on to the next possible reason. This time, the whole team examined the brackets of the part that is attached to the body in the first place, and the rear amplifier is already attached to it. Here we needed help, so we turned to a group of production engineers who were responsible for the quality of incoming parts; they took measurements, and it turned out that everything was fine with the brackets.

Table 8.2. Possible Cause Investigation Matrix

Values of the "Rating" column: 0 - acceptable, 1 - needs improvement, X - poor result.

Then Marvin was given the task to check if the rear amplifier was misaligned. He worked with the control group to verify this. The amplifier was placed in a control device, and the measurements again showed that everything was fine. We weren't sure what to do next and asked the quality circle advisor to give us more ideas. Our advisor was our group leader; he suggested that we go back to welding the body and see how the parts fit together. For us assemblers, it was like going to another world, but Steve and Crystal still went and “walked the line in the opposite direction” until they saw where the bracket was welded to the body. They checked this part and found a problem - the lower body panel was out of tolerance.

While trying to figure out how to fix it, they found another problem. The bracket itself on the lower body panel also did not meet the standard. The pins of the bracket were displaced, so each next part that was fixed on it also shifted. When they began to find out where this part was welded onto the body, the foreman said: “This part is not made here at all, we get it from the supplier.” So the team took a sample of the bracket and went to the manufacturing engineering team responsible for the quality of the part. Engineer John McCoy even went to the suppliers to inspect everything. He found that the supplier's mold guide pins were misaligned, causing the pins to be misaligned as well. We went through the chain of five whys to make sure we found the root cause, which turned out to be true (see Figure 8.4).

Rice. 8.4. Analysis of the reasons according to the method of five "why"

We worked with John to figure out what to do. We came up with three main countermeasures that the supplier needed to take. The pin itself was tall and flexed easily, so we decided to make it 0.2mm thicker to reduce its movement. It was also decided to reduce the hole that the pin entered so that the pin could not move. Finally, the supplier put in place a preventive maintenance program to ensure that the molds were up to standard, and even sent us weekly and monthly logs to back up his claims (see Figure 8.5).

Rice. 8.5. Countermeasures

John and I and the supplier solved the problem of getting quality parts on the line and using the leftover bad parts. The countermeasures worked perfectly (see Figure 8.8) and we put the hammer back in the tool cabinet. Amplifier footprint problems have been drastically reduced from 400 to less than 20 per day. No more people were injured in this operation, the taillights were no longer defective, and the number of andon line stops was reduced from almost 1,500 to less than 1,000 times a day. The team was very pleased because we ourselves did the investigation necessary to identify the problem. The rest of the team members who worked on this process also appreciated it. Although the countermeasures were directly implemented by the vendor, they would never have known about the existence of this problem and would not have taken care of it if it were not for us.

Rice. 8.6. results

We wanted to win a platinum award so we could go to Japan to represent our factory there, but another team got the award. We won gold. The team at some point was disappointed that we did not take platinum, but not for long. The team was very excited because we changed something. We didn't just get rid of the hammer, we directly affected the key performance indicators of our group and our plant. We wanted to keep going and in the last two years we have solved five more problems and won a silver and two bronze awards.

Notes

Liker J., Mayer D. The Toyota Tao Practice: A Guide to Implementing Toyota Management Principles. – M.: Alpina Publishers, 2009.

End of free trial.

Toyota Culture

The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way

Jeff rey K. Liker

New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London

Madrid Mexico Citi Milan New Delhi San Juan Seoul

Singapore Sydney Toronto

Published with the assistance of the Orgprom Center

Translation M. Samsonova

Scientific editor E. Bashkardin

Commissioning Editor S. Turco

Project Manager A. Polovnikova

Technical editor N. Lisitsyna

Corrector E. Aksenova

Computer layout M. Potashkin, A. Fominov

Preface to the Russian edition

According to a number of studies, some part (up to 8-10%) of domestic enterprises practice lean production to one degree or another. But at the same time, more than half (from 60%) of managers either do not know, or have a very vague idea of what it is. True, about half of those who remain think that they know everything or almost everyone about this, but so far they have not proved their knowledge in any way. So in fact, at least 80%, or even 90-95% of Russian business leaders do not fully understand the essence of lean manufacturing and do not accept the key postulates of this breakthrough concept. And if they declare adherence to this method, it is only because today it is fashionable to talk about this "Moon", study it, draw it, write about it, etc., etc. Unlike us, in developed economies more half of company executives (from 60%) not only know about lean production, but also actively use this method. So it is not surprising that in terms of labor productivity we lag behind these economies - and about the same time as this type of management is less common in our country. There is every reason to consider ignorance or misunderstanding of the principles of lean manufacturing as a flaw in the education of Russian managers.

For those of you, dear readers, who have tasted "Lean implementation" or "Lean implementation" over the past eight years, who know that the first word is the key here, that the process of "implementation" is "breaking through the knee" or something similar, this book will finally help to understand what caused the unsatisfactory results, numerous "Potemkin villages" and sometimes a complete fiasco. For those who have not yet embarked on this thorny path, the book will show how not to repeat the numerous mistakes of their predecessors.

Too often, in pursuit of results, we introduce piece work (stimulating not the best human qualities), deliberately moving away from problems, and reducing their solution and prevention to finding and punishing those responsible. Some caveman orders! And it is not surprising that sometimes the leaders of such enterprises claim that they have already implemented “lean manufacturing”. What do they have to overcome? The step from “I don’t want to know, we don’t need it” to “I know that it is necessary, and I heard something about it, I’m trying to implement it” - they have already done it. The next step is to recognize the gap between “know” and “understand”, then between “understand” and “can”, then between “can” and “do”, and finally, move from “doing the best I can and when I have time” to “I live by this and do not allow the slightest deviation.”

Toyota Culture

The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way

Jeff rey K. Liker

New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London

Madrid Mexico Citi Milan New Delhi San Juan Seoul

Singapore Sydney Toronto

Published with the assistance of the Orgprom Center

Translation M. Samsonova

Scientific editor E. Bashkardin

Commissioning Editor S. Turco

Project Manager A. Polovnikova

Technical editor N. Lisitsyna

Corrector E. Aksenova

Computer layout M. Potashkin, A. Fominov

Preface to the Russian edition

For those of you, dear readers, who have tasted "Lean implementation" or "Lean implementation" over the past eight years, who know that the first word is the key here, that the process of "implementation" is "breaking through the knee" or something similar, this book will finally help to understand what caused the unsatisfactory results, numerous "Potemkin villages" and sometimes a complete fiasco. For those who have not yet embarked on this thorny path, the book will show how not to repeat the numerous mistakes of their predecessors.

Jeffrey Liker, Michael Joseus

Toyota Corporate Culture: Lessons for Other Companies

Toyota Culture

The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way

Jeff rey K. Liker

New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London

Madrid Mexico Citi Milan New Delhi San Juan Seoul

Singapore Sydney Toronto

Published with the assistance of the Orgprom Center

Translation M. Samsonova

Scientific editor E. Bashkardin

Commissioning Editor S. Turco

Project Manager A. Polovnikova

Technical editor N. Lisitsyna

Corrector E. Aksenova

Computer layout M. Potashkin, A. Fominov

Preface to the Russian edition

For those of you, dear readers, who have tasted "Lean implementation" or "Lean implementation" over the past eight years, who know that the first word is the key here, that the process of "implementation" is "breaking through the knee" or something similar, this book will finally help to understand what caused the unsatisfactory results, numerous "Potemkin villages" and sometimes a complete fiasco. For those who have not yet embarked on this thorny path, the book will show how not to repeat the numerous mistakes of their predecessors.

WHAT IS CORPORATE CULTURE (THIS IS WHAT IS IN OUR HEADS)

People usually have very different understandings of corporate culture. It's not easy to understand what's going on in people's heads. Researchers identify three levels of corporate culture (Figure 2).

1) Artifacts and behavior. These are things that can be observed at a superficial level - objects, the physical layout of the workplace, the behavior of people in various situations, written documents. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Rice. 2.

Norms and values. Norms are rules of conduct accepted by all. Values are the principles by which people act. For example, one of the core values at Toyota is the ability to continually identify problems and improve the system. Core beliefs. What do we really think about the nature of the organization and our role in it? Do we believe that the role of the employee is to contribute as much as possible to their organization in achieving success? Do we think that the leadership has personal interests that conflict with ours, and therefore we must fight for our rights every day? Do we think that work is just a way to earn money for a living, or is it a way to contribute to the well-being of society? Very often, our beliefs are subconscious and difficult to articulate. Some we don't even know about and say "It's the nature of man." Thousands of people visit Toyota factories every year, observing the work at the level of artifacts and the behavior of employees. Here is a sample set of questions that visitors asked at the Toyota plant in Georgetown, USA: How much money do employees get for producing high-quality products? How do you define performance and what indicators do you use? What is the level of absenteeism?

Do employees object to overtime, especially if they are not warned in advance?

How does Toyota get so many offers from employees?

While the official system of rewards and punishments is undoubtedly of interest, it only answers part of the questions. The questions visitors ask tell us more about their concept of manufacturing culture than they do about Toyota! We realized that visitors come from their own beliefs that the only way to achieve the desired behavior of employees is through the use of formal systems of reward and punishment. It is difficult for them to imagine that someone can do something if it is not fixed in any way and there is no monetary reward for this, or at least additional points for individual certification. At Toyota, there is a practice of small rewards at the team level, and also, potentially, larger benefits are acquired, which are provided to everyone if the enterprise or company as a whole is doing well. That is, Toyota strives to develop in employees a high level of ownership and understanding that their fate depends on the success of the company. At Toyota, the degree of convergence of personal values and attitudes towards production is much higher than is observed in other companies. Toyota's work culture assumes that managers are leaders, and the responsibility of the latter is to train personnel. This is not visible when visiting the enterprise, and yet it is precisely this that is the most important part of the work of a manager. We have not seen such a degree of consistency in the training and socialization of employees in the workplace, as well as a huge amount of work in the field of training, in any company in the world, except for Toyota.

PEOPLE ARE THE SOUL AND HEART OF TOYOTA CORPORATE CULTURE

Corporate culture is a multi-level phenomenon rooted in deep and not always conscious beliefs. This cultural background varies from country to country and can either increase or decrease a company's ability to learn from Toyota. Japanese culture is based on long-term thinking and collectivism, where the individual submits to the group, while in Western cultures the opposite is true, i.e. situational thinking and individualism prevail there. This does not mean, however, that the Japanese corporate culture is unsuitable for Western countries, just that it differs from Western culture and has a pronounced specificity. The question is often asked: Can a company outside of Japan learn anything from Toyota, given the fact that Toyota's corporate culture is rooted so deeply in Japanese culture? For most of its existence, Toyota operated only in Japan and did not document its working methods in writing. People simply worked and interacted in a certain way, and new employees gradually socialized into a new work culture through their workplace activities and training. Traditions, attitudes, and methods stemming from the founding fathers were passed down orally, and no written operating procedures or guidelines were created. But as the company grew, it became necessary to extend its methods of organization not only to other enterprises in Japan, its suppliers and customers, but also to Toyota enterprises in other countries. This required a written description of the Toyota system. It took almost ten years to create such a document under the leadership of the then president of Toyota, Fujio Cho. This document, titled "Philosophy of Toyota 2001" (Toyota Way 2001), was the fruit of heated debate, about twenty versions were created until it was decided to settle on the last one; it was recognized that this version only captures what can be described as of 2001, but the system itself continues to evolve. This document consists of 13 pages and contains an explanation of the principles presented in Figure 3.

Toyota expands on these principles as follows.

Call. We create a vision for the long term, boldly and creatively solve problems in order to realize our dream.

Kaizen. We continuously improve operational processes, constantly striving for innovation and development.

Genchi genbutsu. We believe that when problems arise, you should personally examine the place of their occurrence and do it as quickly as possible.

Respect. We respect others, make every effort to understand each other, take responsibility and build a system of mutual trust. Teamwork. We stimulate personal and professional growth, share existing development opportunities and maximize individual and collective performance. Under each of the five fundamental principles are detailed concepts, for example, under the principle of "kaizen" there are three subcategories: a mindset for continuous improvement and innovative thinking, building "lean" systems and structures, and encouraging organization learning.

Rice. 3.

IN-DEPTH CULTURE ANALYSIS

In reality, systems involving people are very complex, and only an information system or a communication system is not able to change the whole process. In order for the process to change, people must change, and a person's beliefs and values are rooted in his culture.

Even the same tool or method can have completely different meanings in different cultural contexts. Let's look at what this could mean for executives who want to learn from Toyota how to outperform the competition. Maybe they will hire consultants and visit Toyota factories, where they will see a lot of interesting things. They will see a clean, well-organized production, where all materials and tools are neatly placed in their places and losses due to movement are minimal; workers clearly understand their duties and impeccably observe discipline. But is it possible to simply transfer all this to our own production with a different production culture? Will the system be rejected, as it happens when someone else's organs are transplanted to a person? Rather than being a powerful tool for improvement, the new approach will give management more power to blame and punish employees. In such cases, the system of "lean production" begins to cause only irritation. Toyota also failed to transfer the original Japanese culture to its operations in other countries. There has always been a new culture, which is a mixture, although Toyota has always insisted that it manages to maintain the basic principles of its corporate culture.

When crossing national borders, additional levels of corporate culture arise - the culture of the locality, organizations, divisions and individual culture. These levels are shown in Figure 4.

Fig.4.

As part of Toyota, businesses in the US and Japan have cultures that are different from those of other companies, whether in Kentucky or Indiana. Toyota calls this culture the organizational culture of Toyota. People's upbringings, beliefs, and values differ, but Toyota doesn't need to force everyone to think the same way. It is important to Toyota that there are certain core values and beliefs that apply to the work and the company that are shared by all employees.

Achieving uniformity across different levels of corporate culture is a difficult process and has always been a challenge for Toyota when it expands overseas. It takes years. When Gary Convis was president of Toyota Manufacturing in Kentucky, he was asked how long it would take for an outside executive to become a true Toyota manager. He said, "About 10 years." It is relatively easy to learn your job responsibilities, technical requirements, quality and process requirements, what to say, but it is quite another thing to build your behavior correctly all the time. Especially in stressful situations, people tend to slip into those behaviors that they have learned before, take what is called "throat" or practice "micromanagement". Toyota doesn't aim to nurture robots; it strives to nurture employees who can solve problems on a daily basis, optimize shop floor operations, engage in kaizen, and promote innovation—all within a corporate culture of continuous improvement and respect for people.

TOYOTA IS ALSO MADE OF PEOPLE - AND PEOPLE ARE IMPERFECT

In its day-to-day work, Toyota strives to make the positive elements of corporate culture a reality every day. And she does it very well. Top management strives to develop a work culture in line with corporate principles. They understand that it will take decades, not months.

Unfortunately, the world is imperfect and difficult to manage. There will always be deviations from the system, especially if it is a human system. This happens at Toyota, but it's interesting to see how it handles deviations from principles.

HOW TOYOTA SAVE FROM BANKRUPTCY - ACCOUNTING AND USE OF THE INDUSTRIAL CULTURE FACTOR

Many companies now, when the crisis comes, are turning towards lean manufacturing. A rapidly changing global market requires organizations to react quickly to keep up with others. Only those who react quickly and skillfully survive. But what does Toyota have to do with it? Some say that Toyota was easier because it grew continuously after the end of World War II and was consistently profitable. Would Toyota be able to stick to its lofty grand principles if it were threatened with bankruptcy?

Toyota will not give up doing business and will do everything necessary to become a thriving automotive company and continue to contribute to the development of the Japanese economy.

The relationship between the management and the staff of the company will be based on mutual trust.

The team and management will work together to increase productivity and achieve each other's well-being and improve working conditions.

All subsequent actions of Kiichiro Toyoda confirmed the seriousness of his intentions to form the corporate culture of the company. Among the core principles of Toyota since its founding has been the principle that working for Toyota is not only a means of earning money. This is a mutual investment on the part of the company and the employee in a long-term partnership in order to develop both sides of the process. Toyota is a learning organization, and it learned the most profound lessons from that disaster. When Kiichiro Toyoda retired, his cousin Eiji Toyoda took his place, and the remaining leaders agreed on two commitments for the future.

They will not allow a situation in which they again have to lay off employees. This commitment has led to the need for preventive measures, such as the creation of a cash reserve (about $30 billion) in case of hard times.

They will be very careful when hiring full-time employees to avoid layoffs if the business goes bad.

This necessitated a very careful personnel policy and extensive involvement of temporary employees in order to smooth out peaks in case of market fluctuations. Very often, lean manufacturing is understood only as the elimination of waste in processes. But losses are eliminated by people, and people themselves are not a loss. Toyota has understood this very clearly.

TWO VALUE STREAMS: PRODUCT AND PEOPLE

The foundation of Toyota's corporate culture cannot be compromised.

Toyota's corporate culture is an important part of the company's DNA, allowing it to sustainably expand its business in various countries while avoiding the potential threats associated with erosion of its principles. At the center of this model is the employee's value stream, and this must be understood in understanding the reasons behind Toyota's unprecedented success. This success is due, in our opinion, to the approach that Toyota takes with its employees, training them not only on work in the workplace, but also in deep analysis of problems, as well as cultivating a commitment to Toyota's corporate values.

If there is no employee value stream

The concept of the value stream has already become the most frequently used tool for many organizations, as it allows you to uncover all the losses and outline ways to eliminate them.

This methodology can be used at a conceptual level to understand the value stream of an employee. It usually turns out that in the production of a product, most of the time is spent moving it or waiting in line for processing. What if we could map a person's entire work life since they joined the company? For our purposes, we assume that an employee increases his value when he learns or solves problems. These periods can be denoted by cells of "processing", and all hours when a person is not studying can be denoted by triangles of stocks, i.e. it's a "loss". A person can perform production tasks, but for the purposes of documenting an employee's value stream, if the person does not learn or develop in some way, such time can be classified as waste. It can be assumed that most of the time will be labeled as losses. Indeed, most of us spend a lot of time doing routine work, spending it on breaks, sitting in inefficient meetings. The same is probably true for Toyota, but we believe that Toyota devotes much more time to value-added learning and development than other companies. Even on the shop floor, where workers perform routine production work, they spend a lot of time learning related trades or more complex operations. They learn new skills, such as problem solving and group work, and have the opportunity to practice these skills on a regular basis. They also learn a lot about safety, and they have the opportunity to become a foreman.

At Toyota, the term "system" is used quite often, the product value stream and the human value stream are closely intertwined to form a system that is the DNA of the Toyota corporate system.

Problem Solving Methodology Combines Two Value Streams

The key to success is having a production system that identifies problems and a human system that develops people who are willing to identify and solve problems (see figure 5.). It requires people who can think in the interests of the team, who are not only competent and trained to identify and solve problems, but also trust the leaders of the group, are not afraid to identify problems and are motivated to solve them.

Centered in figure 5. mutual trust, because it is essential in creating an environment that encourages problem solving and motivates people to do so. The Toyota Philosophy 2001 document has a section called "Ensuring Learning in the Organization" that says: We view mistakes as a chance to learn. Instead of blaming the individual, we take corrective action and make the situation known to anyone who may need it. Learning is a continuous process throughout the firm in which managers motivate and train subordinates.

Fig.5.

In accordance with the systems model, any organization must have a clear vision of the goal, and Toyota in this respect can be an example of a clear vision of the goal, and this vision is shared by the company's management. Toyota's various business units have a set of mission statements that change from time to time, each retaining the following fundamental elements:

create added value for customers and society;

contribute to the economic growth of the territory and the country

to strengthen the stability and well-being of team members;

contribute to the growth of Toyota as a company.

It is clear that a commercial organization seeks to make a profit, and the more profit, the better. But Toyota's tasks are not limited to ensuring the inflow of profit. Toyota thinks in the long term, in which profit is a guarantee of long-term co-prosperity for all who are interested in it, i.e. both the company and the community in which the business is carried out, but it also recognizes that profit is the result of competitive advantage. Competitive advantage arises when a company excels in creating added value for society, and to achieve this, the human value stream must ensure that qualified people produce high-quality products at low cost and just in time.

Toyota's corporate culture resources are:

a system of general principles;

values;

partnerships;

principles of the production system;

professional qualification;

appropriate human resources.

Toyota never trusts the HR department to hire and train staff on its own. The selection and training of personnel is heavily based on the broader corporate culture of the company.

People processes and daily management practices

working in problem-solving groups;

maintaining order in the workplace and compliance with safety regulations;

two-way communication and visual management methods;

leadership as a way to provide conditions for those who create value.

Organizational processes and the role of the HR department

The personnel management department coordinates such organizational processes as:

ensuring the commitment of employees to corporate values and the use of tools to save jobs;

ensuring fair and consistent personnel policies and practices;

nurture leaders and reward teamwork;

hoshin kanri (policy deployment).

THIS MODEL IS NOT A MAGIC WAND -- IT'S EVERYDAY PRACTICE AT TOYOTA

Fig.6.

Formation of competent and capable employees.

Unlike the usual approach to hiring employees, Toyota's approach is that they hire an employee for life. Therefore, the attitude to hiring is extremely serious. The role of the HR department is very high, only it can approve the hiring of an employee. The acceptance of an employee for a vacant vacancy takes place, but since the employee is hired for life, the original position does not play a decisive role. When hiring engineers, Toyota determines how many engineers of various specializations will be needed based on the growth prospects of the company and the filling of vacancies. For example, a decision is made to hire 50 electrical engineers, 60 mechanical engineers, and 20 chemical engineers. They apply to the best universities and select the best graduates who meet the criteria of the Toyota corporate culture. After that, engineers work and study for several years in general engineering positions (such as CAD design) before choosing a subspecialty. That is, Toyota does not hire engineers for a certain position - it hires an engineer for the future, then invests in his training, forming a new engineer, and decides where exactly he will work.

FUNNEL RECRUITMENT MODEL -- MANY APPLICANTS, FEW RECRUITED

Since Toyota is very picky, this approach seems logical. A factor that helps to attract a large number of candidates at the beginning of the hiring process is the company's high reputation, salary levels and benefits package, which are some of the best in the automotive industry, and this situation has persisted for the past 20 years. Toyota's attitude towards its employees is characteristic, expressed in the phrase "People are the only asset that only increases in value from the moment of acquisition. All other assets begin to depreciate from the moment of purchase."

SELECTION FOR THE PERSPECTIVE

The main reason why other firms learn from Toyota is that its corporate culture maximizes human potential. The whole problem is how to evaluate candidates in two aspects: on past work experience and compliance with the requirements of the Toyota corporate culture, and on their ability to use their experience and skills in real production situations.

So, for example, candidates for the positions of a team member, foreman (production) and group leader were considered according to the following criteria:

1) the ability to work in a team;

2) initiative;

3) the ability of oral communication;

4) the ability to identify problems;

5) ability to solve problems;

6) learnability;

7) the ability to maintain the required speed of work;

8) adaptability to various conditions;

9) mechanical abilities - the ability to perform basic mechanical work.

Of course, it is difficult to find someone with all these characteristics, and much attention is paid to the training and socialization of new mines and the development of their abilities.

For example, over 100,000 people applied for a TMMK facility in the US, 25,000 went through the selection process, and approximately 3,000 were hired as team leaders, foremen, and crew members.

Initial selection and hiring process for hourly workers at Toyota's Georgetown facility, USA

Example for the period 1987-1990.

Candidate shows interest in this job

Toyota reached out to a large contingent of applicants through press advertisements for workers at the new Toyota plant and through the local branch of the state employment agency. 142,000 applications were submitted.

Phase 2: getting to know and testing

The candidate conducts a preliminary acquaintance with the work

The goal is to familiarize the candidate with the company and atmosphere of the new job so that they can make their own decision about whether or not to apply for the position. Familiarization is carried out by showing a video film about the enterprise and its proposed workplace. The tone of the film is positive yet realistic.

Candidate fills out an application

The purpose of the questionnaire is to collect information about the previous work of the candidate for the subsequent assessment of its suitability. Particular attention is paid to the issue of successes and achievements (please provide specific examples).

Test for psychophysiological abilities

The purpose of this written test is to screen candidates based on an assessment of their learning abilities, perception abilities and psychomotor skills; the standard General Aptitude Test Battery was used for this.

The candidate fills out a questionnaire about their preferences

The goal is to assess the degree to which the job at Toyota matches the candidate's preferences. He is offered a questionnaire in two parts: they contain a number of statements that the candidate evaluates on a five-point scale. Sample statement: "I prefer to work individually rather than in a group." It measures not only the degree of compliance of the candidate with the requirements of Toyota, but also his desires and motivation.

A decision is made to pass the candidate

Using the information collected by this time, a decision is made on the admission of the candidate to the subsequent stages. In this case, 42% of candidates passed the phase 2 tests, which is about 60,000 people. Their cases were reviewed and approximately 40,000 were admitted to further scrutiny. Of these 40,000, some managed to find employment in other organizations, some moved, and 28,000 remained, who were admitted to the next phase of certification.

Phase 3: Grading Center Exercises

The candidate takes the tests twice in half a day

These test sessions are held at the Appraisal Center and give the candidate the opportunity to demonstrate the behavior and competencies required to work in this enterprise. The assessment is made according to a set of criteria. For example, according to the criterion "initiative", the following qualities of a candidate are checked:

the ability to search for information necessary for the performance of work;

the ability to act rather than wait to be told what to do;

the feeling of the owner, necessary for this position;

the ability to take responsibility for their own work/team work;

Willingness to assist other team members and work with another team member when needed.

Day One - Teamwork Skills:

A group discussion exercise to assess the candidate's ability to work effectively in unstructured group or team situations.

Team Problem Solving Exercise: Assessing the candidate's ability to gather relevant data by asking relevant questions, arrive at a logical conclusion or solution, propose and defend their solution, and put forward counterarguments.

An exercise in productive ability -- making decisions about productivity and working effectively in group situations.

Day two -- professional skills: one exercise

An exercise to assess the candidate's ability to do quality work at a certain pace, without wasting time and materials.

Decision-making

Out of 28,000 candidates, 12,000 were selected according to standard criteria.

Phase 4: final selection

The TMMK enterprise also conducted a quite traditional review of resumes and references. This verification process usually takes about an hour. When checking the recommendation, in addition to the usual question "Did such a person work for you, for how long, in what position?" they also asked: "Was this person the initiator of improvements in your organization?" After this phase, approximately 10,000 people remained.

Candidate goes through a structured interview

The purpose of the interview is to select candidates for a six-month trial period. Selection criteria are verbal communication ability, flexibility, initiative, job fit/motivation, and mechanical skills. After the interview, 8,000 candidates remained.

Phase 5: medical examination

The goal is to determine the overall health of the candidate. It is checked whether there are contraindications for effective and hard work in this position. As a result, 6,000 candidates were skipped to phase 6.

Phase 6: Trial

During the probationary period, the candidate is monitored at the workplace.

Using the example of TMMK, we see that as a result of observations, out of the total number of candidates, the first hundred were selected for the position of group leader, the next 500 candidates for the position of foreman, and the rest for the position of a brigade member.

Phase 7: Final Employment Decision

Depending on the results of the probationary period, a decision is made on who will continue to work and who will not. One of the participants in the Toyota Production Culture Seminar commented on the selection process: “At our company, we have different requirements for purchased materials, we require compliance with specifications and adherence to our procurement procedures. This is a long and quite expensive process of working with suppliers, which we approach very seriously. But at the same time, when hiring, we are not so serious and accept anyone, and then complain about turnover."

TOYOTA TRAINS ITS EMPLOYEES THE WAY SURGEONS ARE TRAINED TO OPERATE

All new hires at Toyota go through a good

the process of familiarization with the work and come to their workplace, where they intensively master all the skills and abilities necessary to perform the relevant operations. They must enter the team of the brigade as full-fledged workers who can perform their work in a qualified and timely manner. This means that they must perform each operation exactly to the developed standard and fit within the clock cycle. For the manager, this means a correct assessment of the situation when performing tasks, coordinating actions and distributing responsibility, information among a significant number of employees and ensuring that tasks are completed in accordance with the schedule. At Toyota, there is no concept of "unskilled labor". Those who use such a term simply have not bothered to research the operations involved in the process and have not determined how to perform these operations in a highly professional manner. They simply condemn people to work in poorly developed and unstable processes.

START: GETTING STARTED

The Human Resources department organizes a five-week introductory period for the employee, after which he moves to his unit. The purpose of the introduction program is to socialize the new employee in the atmosphere and culture of Toyota. If we look at the schedule of this process, we will see that only three days are allocated for familiarization with the basic principles. All five weeks are scheduled by the clock so that the time of employees is used efficiently and the newcomer understands that he and his time are valuable to the company. In production, familiarization is also the initial stage of a three-month trial period. The schedule is issued to each employee, and it is expected that he will report daily on its implementation. The dating process includes the following components.

Physical training for working conditions - employees attend a modern fitness center, where, under the guidance of experienced instructors, they perform exercises that allow them to quickly adapt to the loads that develop endurance and agility necessary for performing production tasks.

Familiarize yourself with company policies and basic operating procedures - Senior management personally welcomes new employees and explains to them how important each person is to the success of the firm.

Production - after the orientation period, the personnel management service transfers the employee to production, where he is trained in specific operations.

PRODUCTION OPERATIONS TRAINING

Fig.7.

Toyota, of course, is not an educational institution, so why does it put such a huge emphasis on education? This aspect of Toyota's manufacturing culture is influenced by the following factors.

The founders of Toyota come from the agricultural community. Farmers know that their future depends on how well they teach the trade to the next generation.

The traditionally high value of studying in Japanese society. A resource-poor country located on a small island naturally attaches great importance to human resource development.

The Japanese have always strived to improve any craft or skill. One need only look at the perfection of dolls made in Japan, at the meticulous design of a Japanese garden or the preparation of a hotel room, to appreciate this aspect of Japanese culture.

The practice of monozukuri is the art of making (manufacturing). The term is often used with reverence at Toyota, emphasizing that monozukuri is the backbone of the company. For example, national professional competitions are popular in Japan.

Job briefing method

Now this process is called "Industrial Briefing at Toyota". It is based on two main elements - teaching materials and teaching method. Both elements are designed with Edwards Deming's famous PDCA cycle in mind. Briefly, they can be represented as follows (Figure 8).

Fig.8.

TRAINING AT DIFFERENT LEVELS

In order to understand the learning and development strategy for employees at Toyota, it is necessary to distinguish between the roles and functions of each level of the organization. There are four levels: team member, foreman/team leader, manager, general director/vice president (Figure 9). At each level, managers use their own set of tools and have specific work content for that level, but all levels are interconnected by the problem-solving process.

Training for foremen and group leaders

The basis of the entire organization are standard operations at all levels, for each employee and each process. If deviations from standard operations occur, the foreman or team leader must intervene and, just like any worker, use their problem-solving skills to bring the process back to standard. Given this approach, training of line workers, foremen and team leaders is carried out with an emphasis on the organization of the workplace, compliance with the standards of operations, the Toyota work instruction method; problem solving and problem solving again.

Fig.9. Learning and Development Strategy at Toyota: Roles, Emphasis, Tools.

If the roles and responsibilities of each level and employee are defined, then Toyota very simply trains the employee first in their role, and then moves up one level, and so on. At the same time, skills and knowledge, necessary experience, projects that the employee must carry out, etc. are determined. in order to go to the next level.

Manager level training

CEO and Vice President training

The training of senior management is carried out according to the same principles as the training of other managers.

BRIGADS AND WORKING GROUPS ARE BASIC UNITS OF THE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE.

Toyota is renowned for its ability to work with teams, ranging from teams and quality circles to "modular development teams" on product development issues.

It is useful to consider two main roles that teams can play. One is supporting people in doing their jobs, and the other is solving problems to improve processes.

Working groups carry out day-to-day work and in the process seek opportunities for continuous improvement in the way work is done.

Problem solving teams are often created on a temporary basis and are not usually reflected in the company's organizational chart. These are special groups created to solve specific problems.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF TOYOTA: FLAT STRUCTURE AND OPTIMAL CONTROL SCHEME

ensuring a complete understanding of the goals of the organization by all employees, primarily managers;

providing an integration function between various divisions, departments, groups, etc.;

organization of joint work of functional specialists in such a way that they can deepen their special knowledge and improve standards in their specialty;

ensuring rapid decision-making and unhindered flow of information;

ensuring the achievement of mid-term and long-term business goals.

Fig.10.

Typical corporate departments such as Human Resources, Quality Assurance, and Engineering also need to deeply understand the work of the teams and constantly assist them in creating value for the customer. There are a number of systems for this. Interestingly, there are a number of differences between this structure and those in most organizations:

the role played by the foreman at Toyota is not seen anywhere else;

support services only communicate company policy to employees, rather than helping departments on a day-to-day basis, as we see at Toyota;

lower-level managers in other organizations solve pressing problems, maintain discipline, and embody the will of management, rather than embody the will of management.

1) the use of a matrix organizational structure;

2) a decision-making system based on clear standards;

3) according to the Toyota standard, foremen must spend 50% of the time on the line, participating in the process, and the remaining 50% helping the members of the brigade.

Fig.11.

NO SOCIAL DIFFERENCES

A key element of the Toyota culture and another example of HR teamwork has to do with minimizing social differences, i.e. according to the philosophy of the company, everyone is part of the same team and there are no differences between employees and managers, except for the position they occupy in the company. The goal of the company is to create such an atmosphere and such an attitude towards people that would be expressed by the concept of "we" and not "us against them." Toyota brings its principles to life in several ways, for example:

the same dress code for everyone;

lack of parking spaces and areas for managers: those who arrive earlier than everyone else occupy the parking spaces closest to the office;

lack of special toilets for managers;

lack of dining halls or canteens for executives; everyone eats in one place (with the exception of dining rooms for special guests from other companies);

lack of special offices for managers: all desks are in an open office space;

the same basic bonuses for all employees;

* the use of special offices, such as a beautiful presidential office, mainly for receiving guests, rarely for executives.

All these visible manifestations belong to the highest, superficial level of the three-level model of culture. It is possible to copy all these features and not achieve real teamwork. But complemented by the organizational structure and daily consistent messages from Toyota's leaders, these visible organizational moments convey the message "We are all part of the same team." Eating meals together, working side by side in "open offices", having managers go on the shop floor - all this is not only valuable as a symbol, but also provides many opportunities for informal communication. This improves the quality of communication and makes it possible to imbue trust. The "open door" policy is fine, but if the door does exist, the "subordinate" is still aware that he is entering the office of the "superior". An open office means there are no thresholds.

PHYSICALLY SECURE PROCESSES

A key element of the Toyota culture is safety. If the work of a team member is not safe, the company may forget about creating an atmosphere of trust and respect.

This is easier said than done in a car factory where there are a lot of self made and there are powerful equipment and machinery that can cause severe injury and even death. The dangers are chemicals (such as paint), welding sparks, multi-ton presses, molten plastic, and more. Even in more gentle manual assembly operations, complex movements must be constantly performed, which, if repeated daily, can lead to frustration.

PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY AT THE PLANT

Security implies not only a purely physical, but also a psychological component. It begins with an environment of respect where team members are not afraid of psychological trauma. It's also about protecting yourself from excessive stress at work. Toyota sets hard tasks for employees, but there's a difference between a difficult task and psychological stress. In Toyota culture, the reliability of equipment and the safety of team members is a top priority.

An environment of safety and respect

A team member should feel comfortable raising an issue and know that the company or boss will not punish them for it. The same concept extends to the wider cultural context. Mike Joseus remembers how he started at TMMK: I remember at the very beginning of the existence of the plant in Georgetown we were told as managers that we should not tolerate any disrespectful actions, statements or symbols of any kind directed at any person or group of people . I was told to think about the factory, especially my team, and act like my mother or daughter works there. That attitude was the standard. Accordingly, there should not have been any wall calendars with girls or obscene photographs in the factory or in the locker rooms. In conversations in the workshop, at management meetings, or anywhere else, swearing was banned. I think this kind of disrespectful behavior is less common in the workplace now, but 20 years ago, Toyota was breaking all stereotypes of the factory culture with such requirements. I remember Cheryl Jones, current vice president of manufacturing at the Georgetown plant, answering a visitor's question about what surprised her the most about working for Toyota. She said that she had always felt safe as a woman while working there and that she valued a culture of respect and trust in the lack of swearing, abusive images of women and the opportunity for a woman to move up the career ladder. She prepared herself for the "tough" factory environment, but things were different at Toyota. As a man, I wouldn't have thought about such things, but after hearing a woman say this, I appreciated this attitude as an element of culture, and realized that this is a merit of Toyota, and not a common practice.

Simplifying perception: difficulty, but not stress

There is a concept in Toyota culture that work should be difficult but not stressful; everyone must follow standards, improve their processes and solve problems. This process of improvement allows team members to use their creativity and unleash the potential of their imagination. However, if a person is under stress, their potential is limited. While working at the Center for Excellence in School Improvement, we came across the latest brain research showing that when a student is stressed at home or at school, the fight-or-flight area of the brain is activated, and when this zone, it blocks the rest of the brain, including the frontal zone, which is responsible for creative thinking.

In the early days of the Georgetown plant, foremen were trained to keep the process stress-free and give team members time to think. One Japanese trainer philosophically called it "letting zen happen." He explained that if the thoughts of the team members are busy, there is no room for creative thinking. The foremen had to make sure that the team members were free to think. The coach also noticed that the reverse situation leads to the same problem. If the process is too easy and there are no interesting tasks at all, team members are more likely to think about everything except improving the work. The main thing is to find a balance.

This process of simplification in Toyota culture begins with treating team members on the line as experts. And since they do the only value-adding job in the company, they need to be taken care of. A Japanese coach told Mike Joséus that a team member on the line should be seen as a surgeon performing an operation. The task of the material supplier is to provide support to the specialist and give him necessary tools and consumables just when they are needed so that team members don't have to think about it and can focus on the important task of working on the car.

Safety culture

Toyota has been able to significantly reduce the rate of reported incidents at the plant through several key systems: early response to symptoms, support for management reporting, and the creation of a safety culture.

TEAM MEMBER CARE -- PERSONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

While the company aims for zero injuries, things happen. It happens at work and not at work. The need to care for team members persists.

Solving the problem of injuries at work

What to do when a team member gets injured at work? The traditional answer is to send him home. It turned out that in fact such a measure is far from ideal for both the company and the injured employee.

Medical facilities on site

From the very beginning, Toyota organized medical clinics at the TMMK site, in which doctors and nurses worked under contract to provide medical care in the workplace. Two major improvements have expanded this service. First, all of the above security improvements have contributed to a reduction in the number of workers requiring clinic services. Secondly, the operation of the clinic itself was improved: Toyota managers helped to apply the principles of the "Philosophy of Toyota 2001" to the processes in the clinic.

We carried out kaizen activities aimed at eliminating losses. We put up yamatsumi cards (time balance cards) for each staff member in the clinic to record what they spend time on during the day. The team implemented improvements that increased the efficiency of serving staff and team members, as well as improved quality.

In just one clinic with a staff of 10, the team was able to reduce the need for human resources by 2.6 people. Following the Toyota way, we didn't want anyone to lose their job as a result of improvements. We could wait for a natural attrition of the workforce, but in the long term, the company decided to use the released workers to treat non-productive diseases of team members - colds, flu, etc. It is more convenient for team members - they do not have to pay extra in an external clinic; this reduces the company's payments for the rest of the sick leave for the treatment of non-occupational diseases.

THE FRAGILITY OF COMMUNICATION

Is it possible to imagine something more imperfect than communication? By imperfection, we mean that communication very easily (and often) does not go the way we would like it to. We think about what we want to communicate, put it into words, hoping that they reflect what we intend to say, the listener must hear the message well, then decode it correctly, and then turn it into thoughts based on their point of view. At each stage, there are many opportunities for disruption of communication.

The biggest problems with communication seem to arise when we are absolutely sure that we are speaking so clearly that anyone should understand what we want to communicate. As Robert Sommer's book The Mind's Eye says, "Misunderstandings can occur when people automatically assume that others think the same way they do."

How often do we assume that others understand what we are saying? And if they do not understand this, then they must be narrow-minded people or deliberately distort our words. Effective communication requires that a person really believe in the imperfection of communication. One-on-one communication is already difficult enough. Communication of one person with a large number of people is even more difficult. Add in language and cultural differences and you have a recipe for high levels of defects.

In Toyota culture, communication is the lubricant of the engine. It is impossible to achieve mutual trust in relationships without effective means of communication with each other, no matter if two people or 7,400 TMMK employees communicate with each other. Communication is the basis of trust, and trust is the basis of open communication. We often think that good communication means being able to speak well, but one of the better ways build trust - listen to problems and discuss them.

At Toyota, communications and communications systems are viewed from three perspectives (Figure 12).

Formal communications, both vertical and horizontal. This includes the transfer of information from the company (or management) to employees, from employees to management, and the exchange of information between employees. The activities of the HR department aimed at maintaining openness and efficiency of communication channels.

Informal activities aimed at facilitating and improving communication.

Fig.12.

Communication is an important element of Toyota culture. At the same time, it is a concept that intersects and connects with many other concepts in the Toyota culture. Of course, one could say that communication is part of the flow of creating skilled employees. Communication is an integral part of orientation, training, coaching and development in the workplace, involvement in work and problem solving, teamwork, leadership, etc. Further emphasis will be placed on formal and informal communication systems.

FORMAL COMMUNICATION CHANNELS

Top down communications

At the heart of Toyota's culture is the idea of partnership. All employees and even other companies such as suppliers are partners in business and should share common goals. To maintain partnerships with company employees and other businesses, senior management must involve all participants in their business, inform them of the state of affairs, and explain the nuances of the automotive industry, such as the nature of competition and product cycles.

The communication system at Toyota is extremely advanced.

TVs are on all the time in all recreation areas and office premises. They are transmitted general information, such as how much overtime you need to work to meet your month's plan, give you safety tips, tell you when your next voluntary blood donation is due, benefits, and more. The real purpose of this system is to be able to communicate with all 7,400 employees (or at least half of them on that shift) at the same time.

Another communication system is self-service computer terminals. They are placed in the most crowded points of the plant, mainly in the canteens. Many day-to-day HR-related information operations are now performed by the team members themselves, which eliminates the need to increase the amount of paperwork or contact the HR administrators. Such operations include changing benefits / benefits, sending requests and applications for opening vacancies.

Toyota has an entire administrative division dedicated to internal communications: such a division exists in every plant and in every major business unit, such as the head office, the Toyota technical center, and Toyota Motor Finance. These units are responsible for internal communications within the organization. The list of communication tools used at TMMK is given in Appendix 1.

Meetings, meetings, meetings

In Toyota culture, the method of personal communication is preferred. Toyota is committed to providing as many opportunities as possible for management and team members to meet and communicate openly and sincerely. While these meetings should be informal, the meetings are highly structured and form part of an overall management system and strategy. Daily communication system -- good example how HR and production work together to get information to the people. Meeting types, their standard frequency are shown in Appendix 2.

Bottom-up communication

through the Human Resources Department

As already mentioned, the HR department at Toyota performs many important functions, in particular, it contributes to the creation of a fair and positive environment for all employees. Listening to management is one thing, but employees need to voice their opinions as well. In companies where there are unions, the union plays this role: it brings the opinion of the team members to the management. At Toyota plants, where there are no unions, this function is performed by the personnel department.

One such communication system is called " Hotline": any member of the team can anonymously call directly to a phone with a recording device. The Human Resources department documents these messages, logs them, and then conducts follow-up activities in conjunction with the management of the department in charge of the matter. The Human Resources department and the management of the relevant department decide this problem together. by human resourses, are solved in the same way as production problems, following the same steps. In other words, the problem is broken down into components, the root cause is determined, short-term countermeasures are implemented to de-escalate the situation, and long-term countermeasures are implemented to prevent its reoccurrence.

Another system that acts as a cord and allows team members to voice problems and get them resolved is called the Concern Resolution Process, which allows team members to express their dissatisfaction with the situation, either because they disagree with some corporate rule, or conflict with the leader. The Human Resources department logs the problem and then tracks it down the various levels of Human Resources and Operations Management. A team member meets face-to-face with leaders to voice their problem and suggestions for solving it. If, at the end of the meeting, he is not satisfied with the answer he received, he can appeal to the leaders of the next level; this issue in the organization can reach the level of vice - president.

An additional tool used by the Toyota Human Resources department is a survey of the opinions and corporate spirit of employees. The questionnaire is distributed to all team members every 18-24 months in order to understand the state of employees. The survey is very thorough, it includes more than a hundred questions that assess the level of communication and trust between team members, their leaders and the company.

Participation in the survey for team members is voluntary and at an additional cost. Initially, the survey was conducted overtime, but as we have seen, team members do not always like to reduce their personal time, even for additional pay. The company has found that participation rates increase if the line is shut down and team members are given time to fill out questionnaires during the shift. For team members, this event is still voluntary - if they want, they can stay in their team and do other work. More than 90% of employees participate in the survey, the information received is invaluable. Sample questions are given in Annex 3.

INFORMAL COMMUNICATION CHANNELS

One element of Toyota's culture is the purposeful creation of the maximum number of opportunities for interaction in work and non-work environments for management and team members. We talked about some of these interactions in Chapter 8 on teamwork. These same types of interactions, such as leisure and entertainment at the factory during the day, sports events and corporate picnics, give team members and managers the opportunity to communicate with each other in a non-work environment, to overcome the barriers of position and hierarchy.

Informal communication is also encouraged during working hours. The well-known idea of managing while on the job is similar to Toyota's principle of genchi genbutsu, or "come and see": go to the source and find out for yourself. Genchi genbutsu is practiced in problem solving with a different purpose - to clarify the situation and achieve a deep understanding of the problem.

LEADERS DEVELOP THE CULTURE

What does it mean to be a leader? Obviously, a leader must have followers. People follow the leader because the leader attracts them. However, it must be remembered that leaders are not necessarily leaders. Managers need to perform certain tasks, limited by deadlines, budgets and rules. They must ensure that these tasks are completed in a timely manner in the necessary manner and within budget. The difference between management and leadership can be described as follows: employees do not necessarily want to follow the leader. They may feel that the leader does not inspire them and that his or her rules are burdensome. Employees may think they know how to do better, but the boss is in charge, so they follow the rules.

Leaders at Toyota must not only understand the philosophy of the company if they are to maintain and continue to develop the Toyota culture; they must live by this philosophy and teach it to others. For the Toyota culture to become part of their DNA, they must grow up within the company and experience the culture themselves. So Toyota can't just hire leaders; the company has to take people who have some natural leadership ability and develop them so that they think and act according to the Toyota philosophy every day - a process that may well take ten years or more.

Ideally, Toyota leaders should be able to integrate product value streams and employee value streams, identify core competencies, hire the best, train them to meet performance standards, and teach them how to identify and solve problems. Toyota leaders are part of a team, model the behavior they want to see in their subordinates, operate with a “safety first” approach, and can not only speak well but also listen actively. As a result, Toyota leaders do their best work by developing values, beliefs, and the ability to take personal responsibility in others. They delegate authority, responsibility and the need to account for their actions to others.

In internal corporate document The Toyota 2001 Philosophy speaks of "Caring Leaders" who, by definition, "have the ability to energize and empower others, set realistic goals and enable development, and evoke a sense of accomplishment in subordinates. Caring Leaders monitor individual and team performance." and encourage employees to take responsibility for their actions. Caring leaders do not believe that the right rewards and punishments will automatically lead to the desired behavior of subordinates. subordinates; caring leaders are more likely to create a culture that allows them to effectively delegate authority and trust their team members to deliver excellent results, as long as they work in a culture in which team members share the right values and beliefs and are well trained in how to do the job, so that leaders can focus on helping solve problems when an emergency occurs. This is captured in the principle of leadership as service in the Toyota Philosophy 2001.

Development through delegation of authority. We trust our team members and believe in their ability to generate ideas, create opportunities and find solutions. We value the time and effort savings that come from empowering others and taking responsibility.

Prior to the publication of the Toyota Philosophy 2001, leadership principles at Toyota were passed down orally from generation to generation. One key aspect that the American leaders at the Georgetown plant learned from the Japanese leaders was the concept of "Leadership as Service." These ideas were voiced and, through practice, entered the minds and hearts of Toyota leaders. The concept includes statements such as:

"Team member - expert";

"Focus on the problem, not the person";

"Mistakes are not terrible if people learn from them";

"We need to take care of the people who make cars";

"You work for your team members."

DEMAND PLANNING

Staffing plans are built to take into account significant or prolonged changes in demand. Staffing planning is carried out in two stages - first a medium-term or long-term plan (usually for 1-3 years), then short-term plans (monthly or quarterly). These two steps are then combined using a simple equation.

Toyota defines a problem as a discrepancy between standard and fact. The same concept applies to staff. A problem is defined simply as a "need-to-have". Toyota considers the expected need in the short and long term. It considers available resources and planned requirements, and then performs necessary actions to eliminate this discrepancy. Annex 4 shows how HR long-term, short-term and "need-to-have" concepts are integrated into a single process. The three-year plan is based on a forecast agreed between sales and production. Construction of new Toyota facilities is planned in blocks of 5-10 years, but based on somewhat rough projections.; Planning for three years is aimed at ensuring advance training of specialists and capacities. The company takes a conservative position in forecasting volumes, so the worst and best scenarios are considered.

short term planning

Short-term planning and balancing of resources at the factory level must be done continuously. The top and middle management develop long-term plans, and the bottom - group leaders, specialists work on short-term plans and do their daily work. When a three-year plan is drawn up, factories can prepare annual plans.

From this point on, the work begins to balance what is needed and what is available in order to avoid having too many staff, which is too expensive. If there is a shortage of personnel, this will have a negative impact on the number of man-hours per unit of output (because the speed of operations will decrease), as well as on the employees themselves, because the workload will increase.

Operations management, Human Resources, all production units appoint Human Resources Coordinators, and they work in the respective areas, recording the needs and the actual number of employees present, and these numbers change every day. They are in constant contact with group leaders to find out who is short-term absent for reasons such as:

military service;

family circumstances;

short-term sick leave;

long sick leave;

The following information is also collected:

the proportion of time spent by the foreman on the line;

number of man-hours per unit;

plans for kaizen for the near future;

current level of overtime.

All this information is summarized in the planning lists and discussed at the group meeting once a week with the aim of balancing within the group short-term needs and the need for temporary labor force if necessary. To illustrate this course of action, there is Appendix 5., an example of the entire process of starting a new model.

WHAT IS JUSTICE?

It seems that the concept of justice is very simple. We all want to be treated the same way we treat others, whether it's in a family, a community organization, a sports team, they all want to be treated fairly. There is even a theory that justifies such a desire. John Adams called it "the theory of equality". It is sometimes expressed in the form of an equation to make it more scientific, and it turns out that your results (rewards) divided by your contribution (work) should be equal to the ratio of rewards to the work of others in the same position in your environment.

In other words, if you feel you have done more for the company than your peer, and you receive the same or less reward, then you view the process as unfair and your motivation will decrease. Life, of course, is more complicated than that. For example, it is not entirely clear to whom we compare ourselves. Adams calls this "comparable market data". If the workers, as well as other employees for similar work, are paid a living wage, can it be considered fair, despite the fact that the CEO receives millions in bonuses? According to Adams, workers should not compare themselves to CEO. But we know how indignant workers are when their wages are cut due to a difficult situation in the company, but at the same time, top management receives multimillion-dollar bonuses. Companies like Toyota build relationships of trust with employees through daily interactions. They create a culture of collaboration that allows them to feel part of a family or partnership rather than part of a firm or manufacturing operation. There are two types of interactions in firms. The first, the most typical, is the interaction of the type "I give you this, and you give me this"; it is the mentality of working a certain number of hours and getting paid for it. The second type is "gift" relationships, when the exchange does not go through direct compensation, but is based on trust and partnership.

Interaction based on trust assumes that both parties are sure that, if necessary, the partner will fulfill his part of the obligations. If trust is lost, then years of fair relationships with the person who felt offended will be wasted. At Toyota, there is a special body responsible for maintaining the economy of trust - this is the department of personnel management.

table 2

Market Interactions	Trust Interactions
One to one exchange	Fair exchange brings results in the long run
low risk	high risk
Exchange errors are easy to fix	Fake trust is hard to fix
Relationships must be formalized again after each exchange	Relationships with an open end
Conditions are communicated to all	Conditions are highly individual
Each side gets the maximum benefit at the expense of the other side	Both sides sacrifice something for a common goal
The goal is individual gain	The goal is mutual growth
Currency - money	Currency - trust

FAIRNESS AND CONSISTENCY -- HR MANAGEMENT

Fairness and consistency are categories that are easy to talk about but much more difficult to enforce effectively. It's very easy to say, "Set a standard and consistently demand it by all," to treat everyone equally in all cases so that no one ever feels that they are being treated unfairly. It's nearly impossible, but it's the ideal picture that Toyota strives for in its employee relations.

Toyota's principles are to strive to manage based on values and strive to ensure that all members of the organization follow these values in life. This approach differs from that of many other companies, where there are reams of manuals with detailed procedures that are rarely read. The Toyota team member's handbook is a small book containing a description of the company's main policies, such as vacations and sick days. The behavior expected of a TMMK employee is described briefly and simply:

Each member of the team is important to the company and plays a significant role in the TMMK enterprise. TMMK believes that employees are honest in their work and will act responsibly when given responsibility, with sufficient information and quality training. Employees are expected to participate in the development of new methods of performing operations, to continuously improve the quality of work performed and productivity, as well as the quality of the product produced. In the process, team members learn to work effectively in a team, to help each other.

Team members are expected to show up to work on time, produce a set amount of high quality product, maintain order in their area, maintain process continuity, and work safely.

We want team members to do the following:

* be a good "TMMK citizen" - refrain from any action that may have a negative effect on other team members or on the efficient operation of the enterprise;

do not skip, do not be late;

observe safety precautions - always work according to the rules;

to be a good worker - to provide the necessary level of quality and productivity;

maintain and comply with the procedures prescribed at TMMK.

At Toyota, Human Resources (HR) is the official guardian of fairness and consistency. The structure of the department corresponds to the tasks of working with both management and team members in order to take into account the interests of both groups. The organizational structure differs little from that of other large companies and includes the following functions:

salary and benefits (compensation);

training and development (development of human resources);

safety precautions;

strategic planning;

relationships with employees.

What is unique to Toyota is what happens in these divisions. The function of the employee relations department, for example, is to "build bridges" between the organization's management and employees. Within this group, there are positions held by professionals known as Human Resources Representatives. Their function is to protect team members. They should be in the shops so that any worker can contact them, listen to their problems and coordinate their solution.

The role of the Human Resources Representative is defined by Toyota as "the person assigned by the Human Resources Department to monitor the situation in the workplace and resolve personnel and management issues at each workplace." Their primary tasks include:

providing information to managers and advising them;

suggesting methods of communication between leaders and team members, organizing meetings and venues;

ensuring the implementation of measures and unconditional compliance with the instructions of the personnel management department;

collecting and communicating to management the opinions and concerns of employees, as well as handling complaints in cooperation with managers.

To carry out their functions, HR representatives need to maintain close contact with managers, employees and trade union representatives (where they exist), to show that they can be trusted, they are always available and ready to cooperate. You should study people and know the characteristics of each, know the rules and procedures established by the personnel management department and the corporation, accurately understand the conditions in the company and production, quality and attitude to work.

The position and role of the HR representative is very important to the Toyota corporate culture. Personnel management can be attributed to systems such as genchi genbutsu - their employees work in the shops, with team members and are able to quickly identify and solve problems in relationships with employees.

Toyota strives to have a fair and consistent policy towards employees.

Toyota does not believe that all managers will have the same criteria when deciding on promotions, compensation, disciplinary actions, so this responsibility lies with the HR department.

The HR department plays a much larger role at Toyota than we're used to seeing at other companies. This includes the final approval of all promotions, even at the senior management level.

The HR department is engaged in Toyota practical work, having their representatives throughout the organization, they get to know people closely, actively listen to their complaints.

Toyota considers fairness in terms of relationships, moving beyond purely contractual relationships to a more individual level, and advocates partnerships on a long-term basis.

The Toyota culture is based on "trusting interaction", which assumes that a fair exchange is itself formed over time, as opposed to a "barter of goods", according to the laws of which I do it for you only if you do something for me in return.

In commodity exchanges, each party seeks to maximize its gains at the expense of the other, while in trust exchanges, the goal is joint growth and prosperity.

Toyota strives to create an environment of mutual trust and treats HR as the "police" for justice, reducing the need for a third party to protect workers' interests.

"Toyota Corporate Culture: Lessons for Other Companies" by Jeffrey Liker, Michael Hoseus. Toyota Corporate Culture: Lessons for Other Companies Japanese Toyota Corporate Culture

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