The Toyota Company is the largest automaker in the world. It employs a customer-focused philosophy called the Toyota Production System (TPS) that emphasizes providing high-quality vehicles at low cost and on-time delivery. TPS also aims to treat employees well and ensure flexibility. Key aspects of TPS include just-in-time production in response to customer demand, continuous improvement through kaizen, and stopping production if a problem is detected. Toyota pioneered lean production methods that minimize waste and overloading of employees to efficiently produce vehicles as ordered.

1. The Toyota Company is the biggest auto-manufacture in the
world. The company headquarters are located in Japan but has
global plants in Europe, North America, Australia and Asia. The
company has indulged in a customer driven philosophy that has
kept top amid economic recession in Europe and North America,
its chief customers. This philosophy is known by the company
employees as the Toyota Production system (TPS). The three
main objectives of this philosophy includes: providing their
customers with the best quality vehicles in terms of cost and
timely delivery, to treat their employees in such a way that they
are satisfies with their jobs and ensure job security. Thirdly,
TPS intends to give the company flexibility to respond to
market while recording returns through cost reduction measures
(Wilson, 2012).
According to Toyota (2012) TPS has the responsibility of
minimizing wastes and overloading its employees. It works to
ensure that the whole process of production through distribution
flows smoothly and efficiently. The integration of human and
mechanical resources to ensure maximum quality of the cars as
well as improving efficiency and reduction of wastes is the
foundation philosophy of the Toyota Company and defines best
kaizen. To achieve this, the employees continuously work to
improve the standards of increasing their efficiency and waste
elimination. This is called kaizen in Japanese ‘or change for the
better’ in English. The kaizen was invented by Toyota decades
ago and have since acquired a universal acceptance. Just in time
production was also coined by the same company in an effort to
respond to the forces of demand and supply. The whole process
is initiated once the customer places an order to the company.
The company then moves to produce the exact parts ordered,
assemble and dispatch the car. This limits the production of
inventory since production is proportional to the magnitude of
the demand (Toyota. (2012).
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2. For instance, if the company received a daily order of 400 cars
and happen to be operating in 920 minutes daily, the takt time
(from German ‘taktzeit’ meaning cycle time) will amount to 2.3
minutes. If this time is operated at a minimum, then the
resources will be increased.
Jidoka is a Japanese word for automation. The Toyota Company
defines the word as 'automation with a human touch'. This
allows all employees the responsibility to stop the production
process in case he or she identifies a problem within the
production line (Toyota, 2012).
Lean Production Philosophy
Lean production encompasses the reduction of wastages through
labor, inventory management, time, space with the primary
objective of delivering high quality products. This strategy
strives at responding to the market needs through introduction
of the right product in the right place in the quantity in the right
time. In turn, the production process helps in the realization of
reduced wastes and responds to fluctuating market demands.
The process entails a continued improvement through
measurement and reduction of inventory as well as streamlining
the production process. It grows gradually before a company
reaches maturity stage. For the process to be successful, the top
management must remain committed towards the gradual
improvement of step-by-step training, innovation and
production changes. The name ‘lean’ is actually derived from
consumption of less input materials such as employees,
inventory and space (Wilson, 2012).
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If an existing company decides adopt the lean production
process, a practical process for the adoption of lean production
can be implemented in two phases. The first phase will be a
pilot project and will be referred to phase A. It will be divided
into four tasks. The first task will comprise of the top
management appointing a team to oversee the overall
implementation of the project. The team should formulate the
roles and responsibilities of each member of the implementation

3. team. The second task involves a selection of tool for the actual
implementation of the pilot program that will be utilized in
phase 2. The requirements that will be needed for the
implementation of lean production as well as training of staff
will be gathered at this stage. The third task involves the actual
implementation of the lean production.
The Typical Versus Lean Production Methods
According to (Wilson, 2012) the traditional methods were based
on mass production or in other words concentrated on machine
utilization and economy of scale. The machines were kept
running at all costs since the then managers believed that that
leaving the machine idle was a big loss for the production
process. In order to maintain their customers, they kept large
inventories in an effort to meet their demands. They capitalized
on reducing their costs through keeping the machine running at
all costs. The most common method was batch and queue. In
this method, production parts were moved to a queue awaiting
the next step. Machine set up time solely defined the time it
would take to finish the product run time. Some of the
disadvantages of these methods include longer time machine set
ups that led to high wastage of production time since production
ceased when the machine broke down. In case the machine
produced defective goods, it is hard to identify and rectify the
mistakes until the next batch. This led to frequent reworking
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and led to increased costs and tying of valuable resources. On
the other hand, the chief goal and objective of the lean
production is to minimize wastes and to deliver the customer
expectation using the shortest time possible (Wilson, 2012).
Toyota Application of Lean Production
In line with cost reduction on the production process, Japanese
based car manufacturer Toyota practice a comprehensive lean
philosophy that recommends that all products produced and
delivered within the shortest time possible when utilizing the
minimum possible resources. Initially, the company produced
cars and stocked them in their warehouses as the marketing

4. team sought to dispose them in the international markets.
Despite being the biggest car manufacturer in the world, the
company faced challenges from international competition,
economic downturn in Europe and America that form majority
customer base. The fast growth in motor vehicle technology in
Europe and the US pushed the company to adopt a new system
with the goal of reducing their overall production cost (Toyota,
2012).
In practice, the company upstream process requires suppliers to
deliver a specific number of inputs dictated by the quantity of
merchandise ordered by their customers. The downstream
process obtains the merchandise immediately and thus the cost
of inventory is shunned. Although it is practically impossible to
do away with inventory handling and Work-in Process (WIP),
the approach taken reserves a limited number of inventories to
cater for production deficits. These deficits arise because of
technical defaults in finished products, employee absenteeism
and machine breakdown. However, the main objective of lean
production is to ensure that efficiency is maintained at high
level by progressively perfecting their production process. This
ensures that few defects are realized by the end of the
production process. Otherwise, the number of quality defects
determines the percentage efficiency in the production
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process (Toyota, 2012).
The company has embarked on multi-training their employees to
enable them handle more than one operation. For instance,
machine operators can combine their main role with engine
assembly since there is enough correlation between the two
procedures. Innovation is highly encouraged within the
production process. Workers are allowed to table their opinions
towards the improvement of production procedures and
technology. The combination of continuous flow in production
with properly conducted teamwork in the production process
saves a lot of time and thus promotes the company in its efforts
of reducing the overall cost of production (Hino, 2009).

5. In case of defective machine, the machine automatically stops
and the technicians stop the production process in order to
rectify the problem. The mechanization process is set in a way
that machines detect problems as they arise and then send a
signal to another team within the production line. This
automatically stops production in the line and thus prevents
further production of defective products. Only the quality
standards products are allowed to the next stage of production.
Additionally, the automatic stopping of the defective machine
relays a signal to the technical team in charge of maintenance
and are thus in a position to continues servicing another
machine. They then identify the underlying problem of the
defective machine in an effort to prevent a reoccurrence of the
same. This gives the company a chance to hire few technicians
or operators to service a wide range and number of machines. It
also allows continuous improvements in production capacity
through specialization and division of labor (Hino, 2009).
Toyota being the pioneer of lean production in the modern
world has mastered procedures that have made the company a
reference point for many global industries. The production is
inclined toward total elimination of wastes, unreasonable
requirements and inconsistencies in production. The chief
objective is to deliver the orders place by the customers in the
fastest time possible. In order to achieve this, the following
procedure is strictly adhered to:
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After the order is received, the shortest duration of time is used
to notify the production line especially at the beginning of the
production line. The assembly line managers ensure that the
production line has all the needed parts so that all car models
that have been ordered can be manufactured at any given time.
It is a requirement to replace every used part using the same
number of parts that have been consumed during the past
production.
Forecasting on Demand
One of the key marketing strategies at Toyota is to improve on

6. the customer satisfaction index through cost reduction of the
finished products. To achieve this, the supply management
should ensure a well-connected network topology of the supply
chain that will in turn identify adequate supply of raw materials
necessary for the production of electric fans. Toyota also makes
practical and well researched forecasting to ease future
production of their products (Hino, S, 2009). Toyota utilizes a
three-year based forecast or in other words, the company uses
the theory of moving averages. The production unit ensures they
are supplied with all necessary raw materials for the production
of completed units. The demand for the following year is
calculated based on a three-year average of total sales. The
company also forecasts on the demand of customized cars on a
small scale. The demand forecast is made on a yearly based on
cost of planning, scheduling, production and distribution but
fails to meet fluctuations created by dynamics of supply and
demand. This also integrates lean production techniques in their
operation. This strategy strives at responding to the market
needs through introduction of the right product in the right
place in the quantity in the right time. In turn, the production
process helps in the realization of reduced wastes and responds
to fluctuating market demands (Wang, 2011).
The 5s Tool
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Another element of the lean process that ensures comprehensive
strategy is called the 5S tool. These stand for Sort, Sustain,
Setting in order, Shine, Stabilize and Sustain (Toyota, 2012).
Sort
Sort in management refer to elimination of unnecessary items
from the workplace that are
not required in the current operations. Managers evaluate the
necessity of various items in the
working area and ‘red tag’ them and thus eliminate the items
which are least needed. The red
tagged items are then moved to a central area where they are
either disposed or reassigned to

7. other duties. This kind of organization helps managers to get rid
of broken tools and excess raw
materials. Set
Set in order works after the sorting has been accomplished. It
creates a reliable storage system in order to ensure they are
easier to locate. This is mainly achieved through painting
floors, affixing labels and placards as well as installation of
cabinets and shelves. Shine
Once the unwanted or least used items have been removed from
the work place, the next step involves cleaning the working area
and maintaining the area clean fro the subsequent days. This
enables employees to take note of malfunctioning of the
machinery in the production plants more easily. Managers are
thus advantaged since this eliminates and reduces the rate of
equipment failure.
Standardize After the above three 5’s have been completed,
the next stage involves standardizing the best practices in the
working area. This includes the company leadership on drawing
workable
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frameworks in areas involving work duties and checking on the
sustainability of the 5’s. Sustain
Sustain: this is arguably the most challenging aspect on this
model since managers find it hard to maintain their employees
to the new status quo. It focuses on redefining the status quo
and the implementation of the new standards. Some of the tools
which managers use include issuance of newsletters, pocket
manuals, posters and performance reviews (Lean Thinking and
Methods, 2012).
Conclusion
The paper analyzed the benefits of lean production and
compared it with the typical production methods. The main
objective of the lean production is to deliver the exact amount
of ordered products. The production line does not hold
inventory but rather continually produce the products as they
are ordered. This method started in Japan but has since been

8. adopted across the world. This has led to improved customer
service and has placed the Toyota Company ahead of its
competitors. The reduction of wastes and space gives the
company added financial advantage since it reduces overhead
costs. Finally, this paper recommends to most companies to
strive to adapt to the lean production methods.