Don't you love it when two things you really love intersect? Like at a Christmas party when they have both Jack Daniels & Swedish meatballs. Or when you're out by the campfire in the Texas Hill Country and somebody plays Willie Nelson on the iPod. I've yet to see this next example, but the ultimate intersection would be a Top Golf right next to a Bone Daddy's bbq joint. Hot doggie!
Reading about Toyota this past week, I had the pleasure of seeing an intersection of my two professional passions: Lean & Green.
Toyota has been a legend in the Lean Manufacturing world for a long time. They took Ford's assembly line and GM's management system, and came up with something even better: The Toyota Production System. Listen, I could talk all day and night about the finer points of TPS, but I won't. Nope. I just wanna talk about how Toyota is becoming a Green company.
You probably noticed this week that everybody and their brother reported on Toyota's first annual loss in 70 years. It's amazing enough that they've been (highly) profitable for 70 straight years, and it's depressing enough that the economy is in such shambles that even Toyota is losing money. But, even with all this craziness, Toyota is still making headway with Green: "Toyota's Environmental Update" from GreenBiz.com.
There are two ways Toyota is going green. First, as the above article mentions, they're doing things to reduce their internal waste (energy, trash, etc.). Secondly, they're the inventor of the Prius, the most successful hybrid vehicle yet, that gets up to 50 mpg.
Without getting into too much detail about how Toyota brings about improvements in their organization, let's just say that they have a tremendous talent for doing it. Now that they've set their sights on eco-improvements, watch out! They may not reach their goals this year or next, but they will reach their goals ahead of most auto manufacturers. They are a prime example of how Lean thinking can be used to propel the Green movement. Now, if only the Detroit 3 would use some of that $17 billion to make their operations Lean & Green. Not likely, but I guess it's possible. Right?
5 comments:
Going lean takes some serious dedication, and it doesn't seem natural for the way most old-school American companies are accustomed to operating. I have to believe that the Big 3 are strongly focused on lean principles, I mean how could they not be? Maybe they have a problem with execution...I can't imagine unions helping the issue much.
On the green side of things, GM has more models (23) that achieve over 30MPG than any other automaker. They just can't sell them.
You're right about Detroit going Lean. They've actually made some impressive improvements in their production lines, and most say that they've effectively closed the gap w/ Toyota on productivity and quality. Unfortunately, they haven't applied that same lean thinking to their management functions, product design process, supplier relations, and dealer inventory control.
I think this has led to the problem of producing a whole bunch of fuel-efficient (though not as efficient as the Prius) cars that absolutely nobody wants to buy. If they could apply lean thinking to their entire organization like Toyota, they would be better able to deal with these issues, as well as their union problems.
It's also amazing how Toyota can pay their workers $40/hr while the Big 3 pays their's $70, yet Yoyota makes a better/more efficient product... hmmmmm
Thanks for the shout out by the way :)
-T
Ever since Toyota nearly went belly-up in the 50's, they've never had a layoff. Let me say that again, they've never had a layoff in 50 years! Their commitment to not only lifelong employment, but lifelong employee development, has made unionization unnecessary for its workforce. They operate all over North America (Toronto, Indiana, Kentucky, San Antonio, etc.) and they basically have zero turnover and no unions.
Honestly, I think people would rather work for a little less money if it means job security and most importantly a lifetime of learning and contributing to a purpose. Don't underestimate people's innate desire to do good.
What Toyota just gets and what they got before almost anyone else, is that lean and green are good for business. The Big 3 are playing catch up with Toyota, Honda, VW, etc who have a multi year head start.
This is a problem, but I think the biggest problem is what the respective brands signify to consumers. When you are shopping for a fuel-efficient and durable vehicle you think Toyota and Honda. When you are shopping for an off-road monster, damn the mpg, you think Hummer, Chevy, GMC, and Ford. This is the real issue that the Big 3 have to resolve.
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