problem with voluntary wage concessions but concluded that he needed to lay
off 1,600 workers to keep the company afloat. But he did it in an unusual way. He
personally took responsibility and resigned first. He then got agreements from
1,600 workers to voluntarily “retire.” This was very painful for the company,
but the Toyota leadership vowed at the time never to get into that dire situation
again. This is one reason why Toyota is such a fiscally conservative company,
with tens of billions of dollars in cash reserves.
InThe Toyota Wayyou will find the example of TABC in Long Beach, California,
which was set up to make truck beds in 1972. In 2002, Toyota decided to move
truck bed production to a new plant in Mexico. Cheaper labor you assume? Go
to the Web page for TABC and you find that “in 2004, when truck bed produc-
tion shifts to TMMBC, TABC will assemble commercial trucks for Hino Motors
to be sold in North America, and beginning in 2005, TABC will assemble four-
cylinder engines.” Since that was written, it in fact happened. TABC is alive and
there were no layoffs. There were a variety of reasons to move truck bed produc-
tion to Mexico, but Toyota would not close down TABC and fire the workers
who had done a good job for the company.
26 THETOYOTAWAYFIELDBOOK
Figure 2-2. Top leadership commitment required
Philosophy
(Long-Term Thinking)People and Partners
(Respect, Challenge, and Grow Them)Process
(Eliminate Waste)Problem
Solving
(Continuous
Improvement and Learning)Commitment to building a learning organization
Commitment to understanding process in detail
Commitment to thorough consideration in decision
makingCommitment to developing leaders who live the
philosophy
Commitment to developing people and partners
for the long termCommitment to lean methods for waste
elimination
Commitment to value stream perspective
Commitment to developing excellent
processes supported by thoroughly
tested technologyCommitment to long-term
contributions to society
Commitment to company
economic performance and growth