Toyota is clearly a dominate leader in automobile manufacturing today. There are 14 principles are listed and compared with some of the strategies that United States automakers have employed, it becomes clear why Toyota has succeeded as it has. The 14 principles are known as the "Toyota Way" and are listed below:
1. Base your management decisions on long term philosophies, even at the expense of short term goals
2. Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface
3. Use pull systems to avoid over production
4. Level out the workload
5. Build in a method to stop and fix problems when they are discovered, this ensures quality the first time
6. Standardized tasks provide the foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment
7. Use visual control so no problems are hidden
8. Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves you people and processes
9. Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy and can and do teach it to others
10. Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company's philosophy
11. Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve
12. Go and see for yourself so that you completely understand the situation
13. Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly consider all options; implement decisions rapidly
14. Become a learning organization through relentless self examination and continuous improvement
Key Factors contributing to the success of the business
