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Writer's pictureHatsuo Yamada

"Toyota'Iemoto Organization'Revolution" 1/2 -Improvement of the constitution by Kaizen.

Updated: Jun 15, 2022




I looked back on my working days; there were various events at the end of my active career.


The book on the left was published this month, so I read it immediately.


I downloaded the Kindle version yesterday and read it crazy.


Usually, history is only a record of winners, but there are no wins or losses here.


It is the story of a person. First, he solved an imminent problem. Then he looks to the future. He thinks with a higher level of abstraction. It includes the family of the related manufacturers and their employees rather than his level of abstraction.




The Toyota Group continues to hold the All-Toyota TQM Tournament every year. (Unfortunately, I don't know what's going on in the last few years, but )


It happened in the late 2000s.


At that time, I was a Toyota Motor Corporation subsidiary in a company called Toyota Motor East Japan.

I worked as the secretariat for the TQM competition held by the Toyota Group.


That year, there was information that the top executives of each company would attend without a proxy.


Because there was information in advance, Honorary Chairman Shoichiro would attend the social gathering following the lecture at the convention.


A lot of people were gathering.


Those who received direct guidance from Mr Ohno, the originator of TPS, are the top of the primary group companies.


I had the job of the whole secretariat, but it's also essential to see the top of the company attend as scheduled, so I'm waiting for the company's president to arrive at the venue's entrance. I was there.


The company's president was Akio's boss in four departments when he was a member of Toyota.


I think that Akio's familiarity with KAIZEN at the store is also greatly influenced by that person.

The service of completing the quick vehicle inspection resulted from Akio's representative Kaizen at that time.


It was beautiful for Kaizen to visualize the work of vehicle inspection in seconds, eliminate waste, and finish the work in a short time so that customers do not have to wait.


The book I introduced this time also mentions that Akio had learned TPS ideally through the case of a tofu shop in Okayama, but there are many other episodes like this. So I think you are left behind.


While waiting at the venue entrance, I could see the president coming in from a distance.


I thought it would take about 30 seconds for the president to come closer to me, so I looked around, refused to be rude to my friends, and saw the president coming again.


I doubted my own eyes, "Is the president you just saw an illusion?"

The president has disappeared.


I thought, "I can't make a mistake," and walked to the place where I found the president.


Then, when I looked to the right at that place, I saw the president walking behind a stranger.

And when I looked ahead, I could see President Akio sitting on the bench.


After a few minutes of interaction, I safely escorted the company's president to the venue and got nothing.


A few days later, I had the opportunity to hear from the president about the other day while I was moving to a briefing session for my company's president and KAIZEN activities.


At that time, "I told (Akio) that I should be 30% more productive without spending money."

I still remember the words you said.


I guess President Akio was listening to the opinions of the seniors who gathered at the TQM tournament and were scattered around the central group companies.




After reading "Toyota'Iemoto Organization'Revolution", I was reminded of the significant trends of those days.


"Toyota's internationalization is the expansion of existing factories overseas and the construction of new factories. During the four years of President Okuda's era, construction was decided or started in operation in the United Kingdom, France, India, and China. Tianjin, West Virginia, India, Brazil and Canada in the United States. Especially in the North American region, the Kentucky plant has an annual production level of 400,000 to 500,000, and the Canadian plant has an annual production of 100,000 to 200,000. Expanded production capacity to the level of the vehicle. They launched the Indiana plant and West Virginia plant in 1998. Even in the Asian region, where the economic downturn continues, they launched the second plant in each country/region of Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Taiwan. "Ta." — "Toyota" Iemoto Organization "Revolution:" Thoughts, Techniques, and Behaviors "of Permanent Companies Learned by the World" Shuhei Abe


When I called this passage, the president said in my head, "I told (Akio) that productivity should increase by 30% without spending money.", Instantly emerged.


Many things happened at about the same time as the Lehman shock, the large-scale recall problem in North America, the hearing in the US Congress, the Great East Japan Earthquake and the inauguration of President Akio.


I think the large-scale recall issue in North America and the flow of hearings in the US Congress were the seeds they have sown.


Before 2000, Honorary Chairman Shoichiro said, "Recently, management has fallen."


At the same time as the content quoted above, it was necessary to dispatch excellent domestic managers to overseas business entities.


Honorary Chairman Zhang reflected on those days and said, "Logistics was growing."



Despite these adversities, Toyota improved its constitution under President Akio Toyoda's strong leadership.


"If we take the annual average cost reductions for the eight years before Akio's inauguration and the following eight years, it will be 162.5 billion yen before Akio's inauguration and 337.5 billion yen after that. The level has doubled. Each year fluctuates greatly due to the influence of the raw material market conditions of parts, etc. You can see what we have done. As we will discuss in detail in Part 3, Chapter 4, the profit margins of parts suppliers are also maintained during that time, that is, Toyota's entire supply chain in all production, procurement and sales processes. The cost reduction effect is manifested in the fact that we have been doing Kaizen in Japan. "—" Toyota "Iemoto Organization" Revolution: "Thoughts, Techniques, and Behaviors" of Permanent Companies Learned by the World "by Shuhei Abe


I should say that the ability to squeeze out this much by reducing costs through KAIZEN efforts in a single year on top of creating profits through cost planning at the product development stage is tremendous power.


Akio himself entered the tofu shop in Okayama and practised Kaizen.

It is introduced in the book.


Also, as far as I know, when I enter the dealership, the time for vehicle inspection is dramatically shortened.


I've asked a dealer for help, but I remember he was a formidable opponent because his stance on improvement was utterly different.


Their Kaizen's ability had been sleeping among those. Running with an emphasis on profits through expansion was to the tremendous top pulled familiar with Kaizen, and it awoke all at once.


The manufacturing constitution has been tightened at once.


It is not the only achievement of President Akio.


President Akio reformed significantly by throwing a high-abstraction word, "Let's make a better car!" To his people concerned.


(To be Continued)



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