Toyota has based its efficient and effective production system on 14 management principles as described in ‘The Toyota Way’ book by Jeffrey K Liker.
The two pillars of their lean system which support the principles of the Toyota Way are:-
Continuous Improvement – challenge everything (create an atmosphere of continuous learning)
Respect for people – engage employees by promoting active participation in improving their everyday job
The 14 Lean Management Principles are:
Principle 1 – Base your management decisions on long term philosophy, even at the expense of short term financial goals.
Principle 2 – Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface. (Just In Time)
Principle 3 – Use pull systems to avoid ‘overproduction’.
Principle 4 – Level out the workload. (Eliminate waiting)
Principle 5 – Build a culture of ‘stopping to fix problems’ to get quality right. (Eliminate rework)
Principle 6 – Standardised tasks are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment.
Principle 7 – Use visual controls so no problems are hidden. (Opportunities are exposed to all)
Principle 8 – Use only reliable and thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes.
Principle 9 – Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy and teach it to others.
Principle 10 – Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company’s philosophy.
Principle 11 – Respect your extended network of partners & suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve.
Principle 12 – Go and see for yourself and thoroughly understand the situation.
Principle 13 – Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options and then implement rapidly.
Principle 14 – Become a learning organisation through relentless reflection and continuous improvement.
Our SER process can aid your organisation in the pursuit of continuous improvement by applying a set of fresh eyes over current processes and as described in Principle 11, help our network of partners improve. To best understand the relationship and opportunities for improvement between our businesses, the only way is for us to go and see for ourselves and thoroughly understand the current situation as described by Principle 12.
The Steel Efficiency Review™ Team.