Toyota Puts People First

We've said it many times, "respect for people" is the most critical of the two major pillars of lean manufacturing.  Forgetting this is the reason most lean transformations fail, so it's worth repeating, over and over.  A few days ago Toyota reminded us again.

Toyota hasn’t had any layoffs, anywhere in the world, since the 1950s, and people attending the National Coalition of Advanced Technology Centers workshop on Friday found out how this was possible.

Hoseus said Toyota plants hire two shifts of workers, scheduled for five days a week. They are trained not only in the technological aspects of their jobs, but in the Toyota mindset that stresses mutual trust between the company and its people.

During full-production periods, when the plant is running 24-7, employees work incredible amounts of overtime — and during slow times, they all know they will still get their paychecks.

What happens when the level of work can't consume the employee's hours?

Hoseus said during slow times, all employees work on becoming more efficient, brainstorming ways to out-do their competition (they’ll bring in competitors cars and tear them apart, looking for ways to improve their own vehicles), and all become actively involved in seeking ways to save the company money.

At Toyota, Hoseus said, all ideas for improvement are taken seriously, whether those ideas come from assembly-line workers, management or the CEO.

Most companies would send the employees home or even worse, lay them off.  Toyota recognizes that people are hired for their brains, not just their hands.  Therefore when the manual work goes away, it leaves more time for the brains to swing into action.

The hard part can be finding employees who can think like Toyota.

Finding employees who fit into Toyota’s mindset has been a problem, Hoseus said, and its nonprofit organization was developed to overcome those problems by working with the community and educators to train people to be the kind of employees Toyota wants: flexible people with a teamwork attitude and problem-solving skills.

Shouldn't we all want that kind of employee?  But once we get them, are we willing to commit to them and use their brains?

Comments

[David Carlton]

Working "incredible amounts of overtime" during the heavy times while working full time during light times sounds pretty lousy to me; I'm sure glad my employer doesn't treat me that way. Don't get me wrong, it beats being laid off (at least it probably does, depending on how bad the overtime is), but it sounds to me like a serious mura problem, leading to muri on the operators (instead of, say, respecting people and absorbing the mura via inventory).

[victor]

I do not see why working incredible amounts of overtime is bad. The key is if you do it freely, if you need the money and the working environment has quality. By the latter I mean the worker enjoys respect and can see the need for overtime.David Carlton's attitude belongs to the "class-struggle" mindset more than to the modern mindset or "GM vs Toyot"a