ESG Consultants

Toyota’s continued performance has spurred interest beyond its production system in the factory to its development process. According to a NCMS report, Toyota’s product design process is far more effective than its main competitors and could be up to twice as fast and four times as productive as the norm at other automakers. In-depth studies of the development process have shown that it differs significantly from current development practices. In this paper, we argue that this process has to be understood in the light of an overall system, as opposed to piecemeal organizational solutions. We suggest a scaffolding to describe this process, underlying its four broad steps with a platform centre organization, a commitment to lean manufacturing, and an underlying investment in knowledge creation.-2-Toyota Motor Company’s continued performance is slowly establishing the firm not just as a benchmark for best practice, but as the inventor of an entirely new model of industrial production, fated to supersede the fordist model on which XXth century industry was built. The “Toyota Production System”, or “lean manufacturing ” as it i