WhyThe Toyota Way Fieldbook?
Toyota’s success as a company has been well documented. It has a well-earned
reputation for excellence in quality, cost reduction, and hitting the market with
vehicles that sell. The result has been a highly profitable company by any stan-
dards. Earning billions of dollars per year and amassing at any point in time $30
to $50 billion in cash reserves would be enough to convince anyone this company
must be doing something right. Since The Toyota Wayinitially hit the shelves in
January 2004, Toyota has continued to break records, earning over ¥10 trillion
(about $10 billion) that year and becoming the most profitable company in the
history of Japan. That pattern continues into 2005 breaking continuing profitability
records while many of its competitors are losing market share and struggling to
earn a profit. In 2005 Toyota in North America also won top honors in the coveted
J.D. Power Initial Quality Award winning first place in 10 of 18 categories.
Toyota then was recognized by Harbour Associates as having the most productive
plants in North America. All this was accomplished while steadily increasing
sales volume in North America at a time while its domestic competitors were los-
ing volume.
But Toyota’s impact on the world has gone beyond making money. It has
even gone beyond making excellent vehicles people can enjoy driving. Toyota
has contributed a new paradigm of manufacturing. “Lean production,” a term
coined in The Machine That Changed the World,is widely considered the next big
step in the evolution of manufacturing beyond Ford’s mass production. WhoBackground to
the Fieldbook
Chapter 1
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