Look, Don't Touch: Using TPS Effectively

Let's talk Toyota. Not the cars (though I hear they have stellar crash-test ratings), but the methodology employed on the industrial and business fronts.

Since the rise of the TPS (Toyota Production System) regime, businesses everywhere have gone lean. Lean is good. Lean is efficient, productive, and waste-free. The main goals of TPS are to design out overburden, inconsistency, and eliminate waste. Seeing the obvious advantages, managers shake their heads while chuckling, “Those Toyota guys! What will they come up with next?”

So what's the problem? Revering TPS and all things appertaining to it to the point of complete dependence on it. When a business is confronted with a challenge, rather than examining its company-specific needs and roadblocks to find a creative solution, it asks, What would Toyota do? It’s a fair enough inquiry; after all, Toyota's name is in the title of the philosophy. But that's just it – TPS is meant to be a business philosophy, not a panacea for all things challenging on the workfront.

Using different lean concepts championed by TPS, businesses in need of a little direction should reevaluate their use of kanban, kaizen, and 5S techniques. Don't make a blanket comparison between your company and another – each is intrinsically different and will require solutions catered to their respective dynamics.

The following is an analogy from Gembutsu Consulting:

“Imagine that we are given the task of winning a bicycle race. Unfortunately, we are not bicycle experts and do not know what type of equipment to purchase for this race. Luckily, we are very good friends with an expert. In fact, he is a Tour de France champ! We call upon this individual for his recommendations with the mindset that his knowledge and experience can surely help us prepare for and win a race. With great excitement and passion, our friend runs through his preferred bicycle brands, models, and training methods. Satisfied with this information, we go to the local bike shop and make a purchase based on our friend's recommendations. On race day, we are terribly disappointed to find that this ‘expert’ recommended bikes made for competition on a flat, paved road, while we will be racing on dirt trails in rough, mountainous terrain.”

Every business is different, from warehouse to office space. There are differences in end product, in production, company size, equipment, building makeup, company hierarchy and culture, needs, etc. It is illogical, then, to expect that exact replication of business practices would translate well in any workplace. While a general system or model for improvement and success ought to be implemented, relying on the exact play-by-play of another business (even one as esteemed as Toyota) will fall short of your company’s needs, abilities, and goals.

“When we copy specific tools (“I need a bicycle”) without understanding why, even with the best intentions, we run a great risk of implementing the wrong solution,” according to Gembutsu. While one modification may have worked for the “benchmark company,” it may not be appropriate for your company based on all the factors.

The moral of the story? Don’t be lazy and expect Toyota to fix everything for you. I hear they've got a pretty demanding automobile schedule. If your business needs a little nudge in the right direction or a complete overhaul, examine the specific reasons that need exists in the first place. Evaluate the company dynamic, from equipment usage to personnel issues, and, armed with TPS philosophy, start making decisions that will result in a leaner, meaner business. You know what TPS' ultimate goal is; now use your brilliant business to get your company there.

For a little extra help on streamlining your business Toyota-style, check out Graphic Products, Inc., a lean manufacturer and supplier of premier industrial labeling and printing supplies sure to get any business shaped up with 5S aplomb.