The Role of Kaizen in the Success of Toyota

The Role of Kaizen in the Success of Toyota

Introduction

Kaizen is a Japanese word which means “improvement”. This word has vast meaning in the field of business. Now Kaizen is referred to a theory which is related to costing in the field of business. Most of the people refers / links the Kaizen theory with Toyota Motors. Before moving towards the mechanism of Kaizen we should know why Kaizen is related to Toyota motors. Kaizen is related to Toyota motors because it was Toyota that has introduce this theory of cost reduction. After Second World War Toyota faced crisis related to its raw material (Weber, 2006). This happened when the company faced shortage of raw material due to single supplier and delay in the delivery of goods. This affected the production capacity of the company which resulted in loss. The CEO at that time realized that the company must have a system which can help them to get the supply before the current stock is used up. This opened the door for brain storming and a Kaizen process was developed by the CEO of Toyota. This helped the company to reduce their cost as they do not have to keep the stock in their warehouse for long. This is also referred as TPS or Toyota Production System. It is a socio-technical system that is developed by Toyota. It helped to develop new philosophy of business and management. Toyota has organized its logistics and manufacturing for the production of their automobiles. It is a system in which the company is in continuous interaction with its customers and suppliers. Kaizen method or TPS is also known as Just-in-time production (Dyer & Nobeoka, 2002).

Discussion

The objective of implementing the theory was to eliminate waste, design out inconsistency and overburden effects. The main objective was to deliver the effective results to the company in a smooth manner so that there should be no inconsistency in the system and process of manufacturing. To apply this system one should analyze the situation and ensure that the factor of flexibility is there for the company and the people attached to the company. The final results of this process are dependent on whether the target of achieving the elimination of inconsistency and value are achieved or not. The seven kinds of waste elimination methods include.

Elimination of waste by overproduction

Elimination of waste of time

Elimination of waste of transportation cost

Elimination of waste of processing energy and time

Elimination of waste in the form of excess stock in hand

Elimination of waste caused buy movement

Elimination of waste due to production of defective products

This whole process adds values to the production process and also helps in cutting the production cost. That is why it is associated with cost accounting (Dyer & Nobeoka, 2002).

If we look at the success of Toyota today we will find that there is a major contribution of Kaizen in the development and success of Toyota. The idea or theory of Kaizen was developed ...