IT the Toyota way

How five key manufacturing principles guide IT development

The Toyota way comes down to five key manufacturing principles: Challenge, Kaizen (improvement), Genchi Genbutsu (go and see), Respect and Teamwork.

The Toyota way comes down to five key manufacturing principles: Challenge, Kaizen (improvement), Genchi Genbutsu (go and see), Respect and Teamwork.

The planning lesson

Much of the Toyota Way comes down to common sense and making a commitment to always trying to do better. If organisations can define what it is they do, standardise their operations, eliminate waste and improve, it’s highly likely they will post better results.

For Scott, who started his role in January 2007, getting to the stage where the IT department could legitimately say it was executing actions to accomplish the Toyota Way took planning.

“My number one goal since taking the job on was to put in place a proper IT planning process that would drive not only our budget submissions but our labor planning requirements for the next three to five years. That then drives your whole IT system implementation plan.

“It will identify the best IT systems for the right business process. It will quantify the benefits the organisation will receive, either tangibly or intangibly, and it will make sure IT is investing the right money in the right things.”

Add in the well-documented success the Toyota Way has brought the company and it’s easy to see why organisations — especially manufacturers — around the world continue to try and emulate Toyota. Now that’s hardly quirky and not a bad export by anyone’s standards. The challenge for Toyota now is to convince everyone its still relevant given the Prius debacle.

Next: The Toyota setup

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