What are Toyota’s 12 management philosophies?

“For mankind, for society, and for the earth”

1. “For mankind, for society, and for the earth”

As early as 1930, Sakichi Toyoda After his death, his legacy was summarized into five points and passed down as the "Toyota Platform":

Work as one, work hard, and serve the country through industry.

Committed to research and creation, and staying ahead of the trends of the times.

Resist from being flashy and pursue solid substance.

Carry forward warmth and friendship and build a beautiful family.

Respect the thoughts of gods and Buddhas, live your daily life, and repay kindness.

These principles later became the content of Toyota's corporate motto and the basis of Toyota's business philosophy. They played a great role as the spiritual pillar of employees. The times are advancing, and Toyota's managers are constantly changing. However, Sakichi Toyoda's thoughts on business have not changed. It remains a strong pillar of Toyota's spirit.

Let us take a look at Toyota's business philosophy described in new language today:

A. Comply with internal and external laws and regulations and spirit, carry out open and fair corporate activities, and strive to become a well-loved company A corporate citizen trusted by the international community.

B. Respect the culture and customs of various countries and regions, carry out corporate activities according to local conditions, and contribute to the development of local economy and society.

C. With the mission of providing safe and environmentally friendly products, we engage in various corporate activities and work wholeheartedly to maintain a good global environment and build a rich and beautiful society.

D. In various fields, we are actively engaged in the research and development of cutting-edge technologies, and provide the most attractive products and high-quality services to meet the needs of customers and needs around the world.

E. Create a corporate tradition that is based on the mutual dependence and shared responsibility of both parties and can maximize individual creativity and collective advantages.

F. Carry out global and innovative business activities to coordinate the growth of the enterprise with society.

G. Based on fair trading relationships, we are committed to mutual research and joint creation in order to achieve long-term and stable development and achieve coexistence and mutual benefit.

At Toyota, its business philosophy also has a concise and clear way of expression: for mankind, for society, and for the earth.

In the early 1990s, Eiji Toyoda, then Chairman and Chairman of Toyota, and Shoichiro Toyoda, President, promised the world: "Our company's basic philosophy is to create a better society through automobiles. Since its founding, " >

“The idea of ????customers first is deeply ingrained in the minds of Toyota’s managers and all employees. As early as the early days of Toyota’s business, the first point of the famous “Five Points Policy” proposed by Kiichiro Toyoda was clear Pointed out: “Ultimately aim for Volkswagen! "For decades, Toyota has been praised by consumers around the world for its high quality, low price, and energy conservation. This is inseparable from the company's unswerving implementation of the goal of "popularization." They serve all consumers "tailor-made" and make various efforts to meet customer needs. In terms of automobile quality management, Toyota relies on world-class and unique quality management to ensure the quality of every Toyota car. Faulty cars entered the market. When Lexus was first launched in the United States, the new car market started very smoothly. The sales price was much lower than that of its competitor Mercedes. Journalists from car magazines were amazed by the quality of Lexus. An editor-in-chief of a car magazine secretly thought about writing something about the Lexus, because he thought its performance was perfect and that the Lexus had no flaws or shortcomings. However, these praises were somewhat untrue, and he discovered that the new car was only a few weeks after it was put on the market. The rear brakes were faulty. The problem was not serious and could be fixed during routine maintenance, but Yukiyasu Togo, who was in charge of sales, insisted on taking back the cars. Toyota would send someone if they agreed. The car was driven away and the repairs could be completed overnight. The next day, the car owners found that the car had just been cleaned and the fuel tank was filled with gasoline. All local news media reported the matter and praised the recycling of the car. A good thing.

Car owners also think Toyota's efficiency is commendable. This kind of recall and repair service has never been available in the United States in the past, but Toyota has established a sales network and after-sales service system abroad that can quickly meet customers' hopes and requirements. At the exit of Toyota's assembly line, people will see an eye-catching slogan: "Strive hard with the consciousness of customer first!" The essence of Toyota Auto Sales Co., Ltd. President Shotaro Kamiya's famous "sales theory" is also the "user First, sales second, manufacturing third. "It is by relying on the ideas of "customers first" and "for humanity" that Toyota has won the highest reputation worldwide.

In Toyota's business philosophy, the idea of ??"for society" has also been fully reflected. Long before Toyota entered the automobile manufacturing industry, Sakichi Toyoda earnestly warned Kiichiro Toyoda: "I have done my best for the country by manufacturing looms, and you must manufacture cars to serve the country!" The heart of serving the country through industry is inspiring. Admire.

In the early 1970s, at the height of Japan's economic development, all sectors of society strongly demanded that large companies should shoulder social responsibilities while promoting Japan's economic development. At this time, Eiji Toyoda also believed that in addition to pure industrial production, Toyota should also have an impact on Japanese society and culture, so he established the Toyota Foundation in October 1974. The Toyota Foundation is chaired by Eiji Toyoda and supervised by the Prime Minister's Office of Japan. Toyota invested 3.3 billion yen. Its purpose is to repay society and carry out sponsorship or investment regardless of profit or loss. In addition to sponsoring some long-term domestic research projects, it also sponsors some overseas projects. For example, it has agreed with the Ford Foundation to provide scholarships to Japanese students overseas within a specific period of time. This plan lasted until 1983 before it came to an end. At the same time, the American consortium "Rockefeller Foundation" had previously initiated a study on "sponsoring the preservation of traditional architecture in Southeast Asia". Halfway through, Toyota also took over the sponsorship. By 1984, the Toyota Foundation's foundation had reached 11 billion yen, ranking among the top among private foundations and the most active, having a great influence on Japanese society and culture.

As the number of cars in the world increases year by year, car exhaust emissions have become a major public hazard that leads to the deterioration of the earth's atmospheric environment. Saving the limited energy on the earth is also one of the major issues facing mankind. In order to protect the environment, Toyota is constantly improving engines and working hard to reduce air pollution caused by exhaust gas. At the same time, as new power sources, Toyota is actively promoting the development and research of natural gas vehicles, methanol vehicles, electric vehicles and solar vehicles. At the end of 1995, Toyota established the goal of developing an electric-gasoline dual-purpose vehicle. This was the epoch-making new car-"Privis" unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show in October 1997. People spoke highly of the effectiveness of the electric-gasoline system of the "Plivis" car and its full consideration of environmental issues. After hearing about Toyota's efforts in environmental countermeasures, users praised it: "Toyota has made great efforts and contributions to our planet and our humanity."

2. People-oriented

Toyota's managers deeply understand the philosophy that people are the wealth that creates wealth. Toyota has a slogan that everyone knows: "Toyoo builds cars as well as people." The company's third president, Ishida Teizo, once said: "It depends on people to make things happen. If you want to achieve greater success in any business, For the development of the company, the most important thing is to cultivate Toyota people who actively use their brains for the company and work hard for the company.” Yamamoto Sadizo, Vice President of Toyota Auto Sales Co., Ltd., also said: “An enterprise is composed of people, finance, and materials. It consists of three elements. The first is people. Cultivating excellent people is to increase the assets of the company. Therefore, everyone should work hard to cultivate people."

A man with a pioneering spirit, Eiji Toyoda founded Toyota Institute of Technology in April 1981. In Toyota, like all companies, there are a group of very capable employees who also want to go to college, but are unable to continue going to college due to various reasons. Although companies can provide scholarships, on-the-job training, and other methods to help these people complete their studies, school education in society places too much emphasis on "teaching" and neglects "educating people." Eiji Toyoda believes that running a self-owned university is a good way to educate people. On the basis of its own Toyota Institute of Technology, Toyota Institute of Technology was established in 1984, giving Toyota its own place to cultivate high-level talents.

In the usual production and operation activities, Toyoo Company holds various "problem-solving lectures", "consultant lectures", and "coach lectures" to train foremen all year round, and organizes employees to participate in Hong Kong-oriented Or Taiwan's "shipping school (maritime university)" organizes study tours to the United States or Europe with on-site supervisors. Through a series of education forms, the quality of ordinary employees is continuously improved.

In 1960, Toyota Group's companies such as Toyota Seiko, Toyota Automatic Loom Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Nippon Denso, Aiki Seiki, Aichi Steel, Toyota Industrial Machinery, Toyota Tsusho and other companies*** He also invested in the establishment of Toyota Central Research Institute, which specializes in technology development and invention. In 1982, Toyota established an international research institute to conduct forward-looking strategic research on Toyota industry from the perspective of world politics, economy and society. Toyota's research institutions have gathered a large number of economic and technical talents and have also cultivated a group of senior reserve talents, which have played a great role in the development of Toyota.

In the entire process of operation and management, Toyota also embodies the "people-oriented" thinking at all times. In addition to promoting employees to form a "family concept" and "one-for-all" cohesion, they also train employees to become "multi-skilled workers" with multiple skills through "bottom-up decision-making", giving each employee To "create an equal opportunity" working environment.

"Respecting personality" and advocating "autonomous management" are a major feature of Toyota's management. They improve morale by "respecting personality", thereby radiating and tapping the enthusiasm and initiative of every employee, improving production efficiency, and ensuring product quality. Toyota demonstrates respect for the personality of all employees by designing reasonable production processes, improving the working environment of employees, improving the safety performance of equipment, increasing the automation of production lines, and establishing unobstructed communication channels from top to bottom, left and right, etc. They know how to help employees understand the meaning of their work and fully appreciate the satisfaction of their work and the value of their lives.

The characteristic of Toyota's management is that it operates in a group manner, so people realize that managers are one of the colleagues who "leave the work purpose to their colleagues", and each subordinate manages his own work. "Autonomous management". They have never engaged in the "candy and whip" management style of Western European companies. Instead of this method to stimulate employees' enthusiasm, what exerts great power is to rely on employees' "shame and self-esteem" and their own ambition. and competitive work attitude.

At Toyota, persistent QC group activities and rational suggestion system are the means and methods that fully reflect the "self-management" of employees.

The purpose and significance of QC group activities and rationalization suggestion system are as expressed on the slogan hanging above the assembly line - "Good products, good ideas." The meaning is to produce good products , and we have to come up with good ideas; furthermore, only by constantly coming up with good ideas can we produce better products.

Toyota's QC group is a mass organization where employees conduct "self-management". It is directly related to the formal production and business organization of operations or workplaces. All employees participate in a certain QC group, including indirect departments. More than 67,000 employees participate in thousands of QC groups to independently and continuously carry out quality, cost reduction, equipment maintenance, safety assurance, industrial pollution elimination, and research. Alternative energy and other activities.

Closely related to the activities of the QC group is the rationalization suggestion system, which is called the "proposal system" in Fengguo Company. The "proposal system" has a history of 50 years at Toyota. In June 1950, Eiji Toyoda visited Ford and introduced Ford's "suggestion system" to Toyota. Ishida retired and gradually improved it, forming a "suggestion system" with Japanese characteristics that Toyota currently develops extensively and deeply. According to statistics, the number of rationalization suggestions made by Toyota in 1986 was 2,648,740, with an average of 47 per person. The employee participation rate was 95%, and the adoption rate reached 96%. Production cost reductions based on employee rationalization suggestions since 1989 have amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars, including a reduction of $72 million in 1997 alone. It can be seen that the role of rationalization suggestion activities in Toyota's business management and the huge economic benefits generated.

The results of the QC team and the adopted rational suggestions will receive different levels of rewards from the company based on the economic benefits they generate.

In 1988, Toyota's commendation for rationalization suggestions amounted to more than 300 million yen. However, what employees pay more attention to is the value of life they experience through their own participation in company management and the satisfaction of being recognized by the company and colleagues, making them feel that they are just like a member of the management and have loyalty and belonging to the company. consciousness. The concept of "people-oriented" is fully reflected here.

4. Never-ending "improvement"

When people walk into Toyota's offices or production sites, they will hear one of the most popular and frequently used words - — "Kaizan".

Toyoda Gosei's fundamental president, Masao, has a motto that is "Improve, improve, improve again." This sentence tells the true meaning of Toyota style management. It can be said that the birth and development of the famous Toyota Production System, the optimization of production technology means, and the improvement of the company's economic benefits all stem from the extensive "improvement" activities.

In every workplace and production site, there are various unreasonable phenomena. No matter what kind of industry the site belongs to, no matter how large or small the scale of the site is, no matter whether the production methods on the site are advanced or backward, there are all kinds of unreasonable phenomena and problems that need to be solved. However, with the advancement of science and technology, With development, the improvement of personnel quality, the advancement of mechanization, automation, and informatization, unreasonable phenomena are becoming less and less. From another perspective, when the old unreasonable phenomena are resolved, unreasonable phenomena at a new level arise again. It is by grasping the key of "improvement" that Toyota has enabled the company to climb to new heights step by step on a competitive business road.

Toyota's "Kaizen" activities have a long tradition. Sakichi Toyoda relied on his perseverance to improve and transformed the original wooden manual loom into a steam-driven loom with a mixed structure of iron and wood. Then further improvements were made, and an automatic loom with human-like intelligence and automatic parking was successfully developed. When Taiichi Ohno transferred from Toyota Boshoku to Toyota Motor Corporation in 1943, he saw that in the automobile factory, one lathe was only responsible for one lathe, one miller was only responsible for one milling machine, and one driller was only responsible for one drill press. One female worker in the weaving factory was responsible for 20 to 30 looms. She came up with the idea of ????improving the production method of the automobile factory and created the famous "multi-process operation method" and the "connected U-shaped production line" for automobile assembly operations. . At the Miyata Plant of Toyota Motor Kyushu Co., Ltd. in Fukuoka Prefecture, the traditional automobile assembly line has been improved to an extent that people cannot imagine: the production line has changed the previous conveyor belt method and introduced a movable platform with a lift. Operators can sit on the platform and work, and the parts box next to it also moves, so they can work as if they are in a relatively stationary state. This movable platform also designs a platform truck that can move up and down based on the height of the human body's working posture, which relieves workers from physical discomfort and fatigue when working half-crouched. All of this is the result of continuous improvement. Toyota's "improvement" is not only carried out endlessly within the company, but also goes abroad and spreads overseas. At NUMMI, a joint venture between Toyota Motor Corporation and General Motors Corporation of the United States, "Kaizan" (the Japanese pronunciation of the word kaizen) has become a daily lingo among local American employees. At Toyota Kentucky Automobile Manufacturing Company, one day a team worker reported to the then president Fujio Cho that he had improved the ancient oriental tableware-chopsticks. As the inventor spoke, he took out his favorite work, a pair of chopsticks mounted on clothespins, which are said to be as convenient as tweezers for holding vegetables. Zhang Fuji said with a smile: "Well, this can be considered an improvement."

"Improvement" does not have any profound theoretical system, so it does not require any cumbersome and complicated methods. What it secretly requires is a serious and realistic professionalism, a meticulous and meticulous style and an endless sense of progress.

There are two ways to make "improvement" activities continue to achieve results, namely the QC group and rationalization suggestion activities mentioned above. If you compare Toyota's "Kaizen" activities with similar activities in European and American countries, you will find that there are fundamental differences between the two. The most prominent point is that at Toyota, no matter who proposes an improvement plan, whether it is a director, section chief, foreman or operator, he must assume the responsibility for the improvement, complete it and obtain the corresponding rewards. award.

In companies in European and American countries, managers or technicians generally propose plans and then instruct workers to implement them. The plan and implementation are often "two layers of skin", so the effect is completely different compared with Toyota's approach. Therefore, some Japanese scholars said: "European and American countries have not improved."

When you walk into Toyota's production site, you can see eye-catching "improvement signboards" everywhere. The content of the Kanban board is divided into two parts. One side is the situation before improvement, and the other side is the situation after improvement. The subject of improvement, the focus of improvement, the measures for improvement, the results after improvement, the economic benefits generated by the results, the name of the person responsible for the improvement and the rewards received are all written on the billboard and announced to the public. Moreover, the "Kaizen Kanban" is replaced very quickly. Just a few days after an improvement result was announced, a new improvement result was replaced. This shows how actively Toyota employees participate in improvement.