Six Sigma Companies News: Risk Management Lessons from Toyota
Posted by: meikah | 27 July 2010 | 1:08 am
Here’s another edition of Six Sigma Companies News.
Forbes.com reports:
Don’t wait until it’s too late to create a necessary plan.
Toyota is well-known for its lean business process, continuous innovation, manufacturing prowess and strong supplier ties. That’s exactly why the news about the accelerator problems for millions of vehicles came as a shock to so many people. The impact will be long-term, far-reaching and very expensive.
Filed under: Six Sigma, Six Sigma Organizations, Toyota
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Six Sigma Companies News: New Tesla-Toyota partnership reportedly will use NUMMI plant
Posted by: meikah | 20 May 2010 | 8:25 pm
Here’s another edition of Six Sigma Companies News.
San Francisco Business Times reports:
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday that electric car-maker Tesla Motors and Japanese automaker Toyota will produce a car together in the state. The Associated Press is reporting the cars will be built at the former home of the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant — or NUMMI — in Fremont.
Filed under: Six Sigma, Six Sigma News, Six Sigma Organizations, Tesla Motors, Toyota
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What Caused Toyota’s Troubles?
Posted by: meikah | 3 February 2010 | 9:10 pm
Some say Toyota‘s troubles started with fixation on growth. The company wanted to outgrow the competition as fast as possible.
Read a good discussion about it here: Toyota’s Troubles Started with Fixation on Growth
To be fair to Toyota, I believe the company worked with the best intentions. They were leading for years, and they wanted to see how far they could go. I don’t see anything wrong with that. It’s a risk. But they were willing to take it.
And knowing Toyota, I know they will learn from this and come out whole. 
Filed under: Quality, Six Sigma, Toyota
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Six Sigma Companies News: Toyota to recall 3.8 million vehicles
Posted by: meikah | 8 October 2009 | 9:50 pm
Here’s another edition of Six Sigma Companies News.
Toyota Motor Corp. said it would recall 3.8 million vehicles sold in the United States as it tries to resolve concerns that floor mats in those cars and trucks could cause their gas pedals to become stuck, leading to uncontrollable acceleration.
The recall will be the largest ever in the U.S. for the Japanese carmaker, whose reputation for quality has been dinged by other recalls in recent years. The recall will cover eight models of Toyota and Lexus vehicles, including various years of Camrys, Priuses and Tundra pickups.
Filed under: Six Sigma News, Six Sigma Organizations, Toyota
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Six Sigma Companies News: Toyota considers halting operations at California’s Last Car Plant
Posted by: meikah | 30 July 2009 | 9:16 pm
Here’s another edition of Six Sigma Companies News.
Toyota, the company that is known to have set the standards in process innovation and improvement with its The Toyota Way, is not spared from the crisis.
In a recent article on Los Angeles Times Online – Business, Toyota is considering ceasing operations at California’s last car plant.
LAT reports:
Toyota Motor Corp. appears to be moving closer to shuttering California’s last auto plant.
The Japanese automaker plans to start talks next week that could dissolve New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., or NUMMI, which opened in Fremont in 1984 as a 50-50 joint venture of Toyota and then-General Motors Corp.
Filed under: General, Six Sigma News, Six Sigma Organizations, Toyota
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Innovation of the Week: Toyota’s Brain Control of Wheelchairs
Posted by: meikah | 29 June 2009 | 5:23 pm
Researchers in Japan have developed a brain-machine interface (BMI) system that allows for control of a wheelchair using thought.
The system processes brain thought patterns and can turn them into left, right and forward movements of the wheelchair with a delay as short as one-thousandth of a second. That’s a vast improvement over other systems that can take as long as several seconds to analyze and react to the user’s thoughts.
Filed under: Innovation, Innovation Update, Six Sigma Organizations, Toyota
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A Modern Parable
Posted by: meikah | 27 January 2009 | 10:00 pm
I got this from the email, and I thought of sharing it here. The story has a ring of truth. What do you think?
A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company (Ford Motors) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River . Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.
On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.
The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.
Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 7 people steering and 2 people rowing.
Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion.
They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.
Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team’s management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 2 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.
They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 2 people rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the ‘Rowing Team Quality First Program,’ with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rowers. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses. The pension program was trimmed to ‘equal the competition’ and some of the resultant savings were channeled into morale-boosting programs and teamwork posters.
The next year the Japanese won by two miles.
Humiliated, the American management laid off one rower, halted development of a new canoe, sold all the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses.
The next year, try as he might, the lone designated rower was unable to even finish the race (having no paddles), so he was laid off for unacceptable performance, all canoe equipment was sold and the next year’s racing team was out-sourced to India.
Sadly, the End.
Here’s something else to think about: Ford has spent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the US , claiming they can’t make money paying American wages.
TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US . The last quarter’s results:
TOYOTA makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in losses.
Ford folks are still scratching their heads, and collecting bonuses…
IF THIS WEREN’T SO TRUE IT MIGHT BE FUNNY
Filed under: Ford Motor Co., Manufacturing, Processes, Quality, Toyota
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Staying Afloat The Toyota Way
Posted by: meikah | 2 November 2008 | 10:48 pm
I just have to share this with you today. It’s all over the news that companies have been experiencing really some bad business these days.
Toyota, however, is weathering the storm, The Toyota Way. Toyota has maintained its solid balance, ample cash, and continued profitability, despite experiencing earnings slump. The company is also projected to still make over $10 billion, which will enable the company to fund measures that will help it emerge stronger.
In the short term that means steps such as offering 0% financing on certain vehicles in the U.S. That should help boost showroom traffic and tell customers Toyota has cash to finance vehicle purchases. Longer term, Toyota plans to introduce more hybrids and more attractive smaller cars.
Here’s a look at some of the measure’s Toyota is taking during the current downturn.
Perhaps, we can all operate our busines the Toyota Way.
Filed under: Manufacturing, Six Sigma Organizations, Sustainable Business, Toyota
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Alcoa’s Excel Extrusion plant in Warren Adopts Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 29 August 2007 | 7:18 pm
Alcoa Inc.’s Excel Extrusion plant in Warren takes on a new owner who expects the aluminum plant to turn its products into gold. That’s according to the press release today.
According to Allen Cain, president of Golden Aluminum Extrusion LLC, the company that bought the Warren aluminum plant, they plan to grow the 130-worker plant by operating on a 40-hour weekly production by attracting new customers.
The press release says:
While not expecting to add workers in the near future, Cain said Golden does expect the plant to return to profitability by using Six Sigma standards for quality control and the Toyota Production System for lean, speedy production.
‘‘Customers are demanding shorter lead times and higher quality,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ll assure our customers we can provide them with quality products in the shortest time. We’ll look to cut inventories while increasing the velocity of products through the plant.’’
Source:
Tribune Chronicle, an iSixSigma featured link
*Photo from Stock.Xchng
Filed under: Deployment, Manufacturing, Processes, Six Sigma Organizations, Toyota, iSixSigma
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Six Sigma Reference Feature: The Toyota Way
Posted by: meikah | 20 March 2007 | 1:49 am
Almost a year after this book was left with me by my boss, I’m finally starting to read it. Not good, eh?
I’ve heard a lot about the The Toyota Way though. And I know many companies are relying on it for management strategies. The book, however, as the author attests and Toyota‘s president Fujio Cho, emphasizes that it’s not the management strategies per se, but the system that makes every strategy work together every day and consistently.
Let me share with you some of the key principles that drive the techniques and tools of the Toyota Production System (TPS).
- Long-term philosophy: have long-term thinking, long-term approach.
- The right process will produce the right results: be a process-oriented company.
- Add value to the organization by developing your people and partners: have tools that support people who should be continuously improving and continuously developing.
- Continuously solving root problems drives organizational learning: analyze, reflect, and communicate lessons learned to standardize best-known practices.
You have to read this book, if you haven’t yet.
Related references:
BusinessSummaries, Book Preview: The Toyota Way “14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer”
IndustryWeek, “Learning From Toyota — Again”
