Toyota Case Note

Toyota Case Notes

Lean Production has been capturing significant attention for many years. The Toyota case gives us a detailed view of the Toyota Production System in practice. If we were having a class discussion on this case, I would likely lead you through the following series of questions. Try answering them for yourself to get your head into it.

Suppose you are a worker at a station on the line.

What happens if you can’t get your task done quickly?

Then what happens?

What if you can’t fix the problem?

Then what happens?

Does this happen to you often?

How often do you get the problem solved and how often do you have to stop the line?

Given the number of stations on the line, how many times does an andon chord get pulled per hour? How often does the line stop?

This sounds like total chaos. How does work get done?

How much downtime is there per shift? per hour?

How do you reconcile so little downtime with so many andon pulls and so many line stoppages?

What does this tell you about workers’ attitudes towards quality? productivity?

What does it say about their technical skills, problem solving, team skills, empowerment, leadership?

Where do group leaders come from? What does it take to be one?

What about line supervisors?

Now start thinking about all the systems that feed the line: material handling, inventory, suppliers,... Look at the layout diagram and note that there is no room for buffer inventories. The only material sitting around is what is needed at that instant for assembly.

There is no landscape of completed vehicles like you see near the Halifax airport or at the Autoport in Dartmouth. As vehicles are completed they are to be loaded on trucks and sent to dealers across North America. Since dealers order a mix of different vehicles, Toyota must be constantly producing a full mix of different models of Camry. This is the epitome of a pull system.

Amazingly, it all works.

The issue in the case appears to be...