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The Toyota Way, another Six Sigma?

foghorn67

foghorn67

Lifer
Not a car thread. This has to do with business philosophies and manufacturing schools of thought.
Can someone give me the Toyota Way in a nutshell? Is it the origin of lean manufacturing?
My new boss is always talking about, he beams with delight every time the concept comes up. I would like to know the basics. And no, I don't want to read the book just to get a basic idea.
 
Oh god, this is all we talked about in the one ISE class I ever took in college. I don't even want to remember it. *shudder*
 
Yes, it is the origin of lean manufacturing. In a nutshell, activities that do not add value to the production process are eliminated, workers determine the best way to do their jobs, etc. Supposedly 80% of Toyota processes add value as compared to 20% of GM's processes (measured in the 1960s I think).
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Toyota_Way

For their American facilities its mostly just words and something to throw around for investors to get all excited about.

I worked for Toyota for 6 years, they are big on seminars and preaching their "Kaizen" and "Just in time" philosophies.

I always got a laugh out of "just in time" saying it was the same as almost late 😀

I did learn some things in a 4 day seminar they sent me to called "The power of communication"

I pointed you in the direction of impartial info on this, but I am not able to be objective here so I will stop now 🙂
 
If Toyota was truly six sigma they wouldn't probably would not have had issues with their cars. 😛
Though .9999966 times the number of cars they make is still an amount.
 
foghorn67 said:
Not a car thread. This has to do with business philosophies and manufacturing schools of thought.
Can someone give me the Toyota Way in a nutshell? Is it the origin of lean manufacturing?
My new boss is always talking about, he beams with delight every time the concept comes up. I would like to know the basics. And no, I don't want to read the book just to get a basic idea.
Click to expand...

Good topic, I just bought my daughter a Toyota Matrix!

I did a blog on this:

Sun Microsystems Autopsy: Death By Six Sigma

That wasn't fully appreciated by the Six Sigma Community.
 
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I always thought Six Sigma may be good for manufacturing companies but is a complete and utter joke anywhere else. Just another way of consultants to get paid massive bux to do nothing that adds significant value to the company.
 
The Toyota Way was given to the Japs by the Americans that came in to restore industry after we blew it the fuck up in WW2. They took lean ideals and put them in a nice shiny package.
 
DanielNenni said:
Good topic, I just bought my daughter a Toyota Matrix!

I did a blog on this:

Sun Microsystems Autopsy: Death By Six Sigma

That wasn't fully appreciated by the Six Sigma Community.
Click to expand...

Half way through this blog posting and noticed the part about taking the "fun" out of things.
Is there a specific philosophy that cultivated corny things like a sense of community at the workplace and team building exercises? I'm a reading a bit too much into this part?
 
JIT is a BS process in the US. It does not work in the US auto industry as the customer has too much control. They can drop orders in and demand them within the week. It's not realistic.
 
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