Ci&T Advises Not to Give Up on Lean in the Wake of Toyota Recall
With the recent headlines around Toyota’s massive recalls, much has been made of the company’s Lean approach to manufacturing, which, of course, it pioneered. Some in the IT world that have applied this approach to their own organizations may even be asking whether it’s appropriate to be talking about Lean as a superior philosophy.
More than anything, the Toyota example just goes to illustrate that great companies are not immune to crisis, and even the best managers can make big mistakes. What really sets apart superior companies is their ability to look deeply and seriously into their problems’ sources and come out of a crisis even stronger. That’s what happened when Taiichi Ohno first devised the ideas that later came to be known as “lean principles,” when Toyota experienced a crisis in the 1950s. And I believe that history will repeat itself in this case.
Apparently I’m not alone. The reaction of car owners defending the company and the quality of its cars is astonishing. Make no mistake: the five deaths reported thus far as a result of the Toyota manufacturing problems cannot and should not be diminished. But the company is clearly taking the issue very seriously, as recently evidenced by the refusal of Akio Toyoda of a well-deserved prize offered by the Japanese government for the Prius’ fuel efficiency. This is no theater, as one could expect in a Western culture.
So, yes, Toyota, the great master of lean thinking, has serious issues to contend with, just when the market is starting to show signs of a slow recovery. Is it suffering from hubris born out of its extreme success? Is it compromising discipline in the pursuit of more (to be bigger than GM)? If that is the case, I’d say that at least Toyota is not denying risk and peril (which would be the next stage of decline) – they’re taking this very seriously. I don’t think that any company is above all crisis – either caused by external factors or internal ones. But I do trust that the culture that Toyota has built – based on the Lean principles it pioneered – will help lift it out of the turmoil it currently faces.
Were Toyota not a Lean company, I would be considerably less confident in its ability to ride out this storm. But with its consistent record over several decades of producing high-quality cars and providing excellent service, the company has too many supporters to simply fail. With a management culture that encourages looking at issues up close, determining root causes and fixing them at the outset, the company has the skills and resources that it takes to continue to be a leader in the industry.
There will always be the questions of how the original developers (the true masters) of the Lean approach who are no longer with Toyota (Ohno passed away in 1990) would respond to this crisis, and whether the corporate culture built over all these years is actually strong enough to surmount such a dangerous and difficult test. It’s worth following this ongoing story, and it’s important that no matter how you feel about Toyota, we examine what ultimately happens as a result of this crisis and learn from it. Masters – even those that make significant mistakes – are always teaching.
Leonardo Mattiazzi, VP International Business for Ci&T
Source: http://advice.cio.com/leonardo_mattiazzi/when_the_master_falters_what_do_the_disciples_do