The Toyota Production System

Introduction

The Toyota Production System (TPS) was designed by an internal, company executive who understood the obstacles and the opportunities to maximize its success in the automotive industry. The automotive manufacturer recognized that it would have to achieve optimal production system efficiencies to compete against its competitors on the cost of its product due to its limited, in country resources. Additionally, Japan’s strong investment in its workforce had to be incorporated to achieve the level of quality it was accustomed to delivering. To help understand the significance of the TPS, we will review the TPS concepts that help define the quality of the operations. Furthermore, we will apply grid analytics that will determine the best location for the next Toyota plant that will produce the RX330. Next, we will make recommendations for Toyota to maximize its profits after comparing the low, moderate and high probabilities of the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC) operations. To conclude, we will provide a summary of Toyota’s North American operations, including its strategy and suggested changes to improve its results.

Define the Toyota Production System Terms

Toyota’s Production System (TPS) has a list of terms that allow the company to remain ahead of schedule, efficiently manage production, and keep costs low. The terms serve as tools, which assists Toyota with defining and maintaining its competitive advantage in the automotive industry by producing a quality product at a very competitive price. Following are terms that create the TPS model. Following are several terms that design the TPS. These terms are:

a. Andon is the visual aid, similar to a dashboard that allows Toyota to have a control station over the manufacturing process to prevent equipment malfunctions and ensure quality products. For example, Newport News Shipyard (NNS) has its own version of Andon, referred to as Work Control Main (Huntington). WCM allows for the ability for an employee to stop production by simply pushing a few buttons on a touch screen called MainStream (Huntington). MainStream is tied into all departments that gives off a notification to cease all work until otherwise notified (Huntington). MainStream was built in order to ensure a better product. In contrast to the NNW, Marsh encourages colleague feedback. However, the broader workforce does not hold the authority; rather, any incidents must be report to management followed by a decision from leadership supported by the internal compliance and legal departments.

b. Genchi Genbutsu is the idea that hands-on experience contains is more beneficial than second hand information such as reading about it. NNS practices Genchi Genbutsu by allowing engineers that never have been on an active ship go out to sea trials and see their designs in real life situations (Huntington). This allows the design