The Toyota Way

Principles of The Toyota Way is a management philosophy used by the Toyota corporation, which includes the Toyota Production System. The main ideas are to base management decisions on a "philosophical understanding of the purpose (company)", think long term, have a process to solve problems, adding value to the organization by developing its people, and realize that solving problems on an ongoing menurus encourage organizational learning. [1]

Since the 1980s, Toyota and Lexus has gained recognition for the quality of their vehicles and consistently get a higher ranking than the other car manufacturers in the vehicle owner satisfaction survey. This is according to Jeffrey Liker, a professor of industrial engineering University of Michigan, mainly because of its business philosophy underlying their production systems. [2]

Principle 1: Base your management decisions on long-term philosophy, even when having to sacrifice short-term financial goals
Principle 2: Create continuous process flow to bring problems to surface.
Principle 3: Use "pull" systems (pull) to avoid excessive production.
Principle 4: Level out the workload (heijunka). (Work like the tortoise, not like a rabbit).
Principle 5: Build a culture that stops to fix the problem, so that the appropriate quality obtained from the first.
Principle 6: Standardized tasks and processes that are the basis for continuous improvement and employee empowerment.
Principle 7: Use visual control so no problems are hidden.
Principle 8: Use only technology that can be trusted and thoroughly tested to serve the people and processes.
Principle 9: Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and teach it to others.
Principle 10: Develop the people and outstanding team, who are willing to follow your company's philosophy.
Principle 11: Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by continuing to challenge them and help them improve themselves.
Principle 12: Go and see for yourself to really understand the situation (genchi genbutsu).
Principle 13: Take decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all the options; implement decisions quickly (nemawashi).
Principle 14: Become a learning organization through continuous reflection (hansei) and continuous improvement