With first-quarter figures showing that Toyota is poised to overtake GM as the world's top automaker this year, it's an appropriate time to consider how Toyota views an essential component in lean manufacturing - people. Here's an excerpt from "The Role of Management in a Lean Manufacturing Environment," an article first published in 2001 by Gary Convis, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky.

One of the fundamental elements of the Toyota Production System (or any lean manufacturing environment) that management must be fully committed to is the "customer-first" philosophy. Typically, organizations envision the customer only in terms of the person who purchases the final product at the end of the process. TPS has a different view.

Essentially, each succeeding process or workstation or department is the customer. In a Toyota plant, we work very hard to ensure that all team members and all departments realize their dual role: they are at once the customers of the previous operation and the suppliers to the next operation downstream.

For this concept to flourish, there must be no artificial barriers walling off one area from another or one department from another. Rather, the entire organization shares problems and must work together to ensure that a solution is found. Therefore, it is critical for the successful implementation of TPS that all managers support this idea and aggressively seek to solve problems, even if they are not directly within their scope of control. This all-hands-on-deck attitude is essential in a TPS environment.

The Toyota Production System is an integrated and interdependent system involving many elements. I like to think of it as a triangle, where one side is philosophy, one side is technology, and the other side is management. Cradled in the middle of the triangle is what TPS is really all about - people. Human development is at the very core of TPS.

Of course the tools are important. TPS uses just-in-time, small lot delivery, quality in the process, leveling of demand, visual control and clean, orderly worksites, to manage the day-to-day production system as efficiently as possible.
But the basic tenet of TPS is that people are the most important asset, and, for that reason, management must have a shop-floor focus. Toyota managers are taught that all value-added activities start on the shop floor; therefore the job of managers is to support the team members. Production team members appreciate management on the shop floor only when they can see that we are out there to help them do their jobs, not as part of a command structure, bent on telling them what to do.

In my experience, the most common roadblock to the successful implementation of TPS is the failure on the part of management to understand TPS as a comprehensive approach to manufacturing and management. TPS is not simply a set of concepts, techniques and methods, which can be implemented by command and control. Rather, it is a fully integrated management and manufacturing philosophy and approach which must be practiced throughout the organization from top to bottom and consistently applied day in and day out.

For TPS to work effectively, it needs to be adopted in its entirety, not piecemeal. Each element of TPS will only fully blossom if grown in an environment that contains and nourishes the philosophies and managerial practices needed to support it. I liken this to a greenhouse, where just the right combination of soil, light, temperature, humidity, water and nutrients allow plants to grow and flourish. If any one of these elements is removed, the plants will weaken and eventually die.

TPS is an interlocking set of three underlying elements: the philosophical underpinnings, the managerial culture and the technical tools. The philosophical underpinnings include a joint shop-floor, customer-first focus, an emphasis on people first, a commitment to continuous improvement, and a belief that harmony with the environment is of critical importance. The managerial culture for TPS is rooted in several factors, including developing and sustaining a sense of trust, a commitment to involving those affected by first, teamwork, equal and fair treatment for all, and finally, fact-based decision making and long-term thinking.
All of these facets must be in place and in practice for TPS to truly flourish and provide the high-quality, high-productivity results it is capable of producing.

What have I learned from my experience with the Toyota Production System, that I can pass along to you? First, I have learned that the human dimension is the single most important element for success. Management has no more critical role than motivating and engaging large numbers of people to work together toward a common goal. Defining and explaining what that goal is, sharing a path to achieving it, motivating people to take the journey with you, and assisting them by removing obstacles - these are management's reason for being.

I'll never forget the wise advice given me by a man I grew to respect and admire very deeply, Mr. Kan Higashi, who was our second president at NUMMI (a Toyota-GM joint venture). When he promoted me to vice president, he said my greatest challenge would be "to lead the organization as if I had no power." In other words, shape the organization not through the power of will or dictate, but rather through example, through coaching and through understanding and helping others to achieve their goals. This, I truly believe, is the role of management in a healthy, thriving, work environment.

This article is also available online at http://www.sae.org/manufacturing/lean/column/leanjul01.htm