2006年 09月 15日
Great overview of Toyota! |
今学期履修しているJIT/Supply Chain Managementクラスは、文字通りJust In Timeなどの生産管理技術やSCMといった物流管理等について学ぶクラスだ。Just In Timeというともちろんトヨタ式生産方式、ということで、授業中には「カンバン」「ジドーカ(自働化)」「ムダ」「ムリ」「ムラ」といった日本語用語が飛び出てくる。
当然トヨタ式生産方式はアメリカでもかなり研究されているようで、先生のみならずアメリカ人の生徒からも、トヨタではこんなことをしていて、、、なんて話が出てくる。日本人としてとても誇らしく思うとともに、「間違っている訳ではないけれど、それってどうもピンとこないな」なんて思うことも多い。その都度できるだけ発言しようとしているのだけれど、いまいちうまく伝えきれずもどかしく思うことばかり。
そんなわけで、トヨタについて特に重点的に学ぶ授業の前に、思い切って自分なりの見解をまとめて先生に送ってみた。授業中では伝えきれない思いも込めて。
授業が始まる前、教室で準備をしていると、先生がつかつかと寄ってきた。「今日メールを送ってくれたのは君かい?素晴らしい。素晴らしい内容だ。君の許可が得られればイントラネットに掲載したいのだけれど、いいかい?」答えはもちろん「Of course!」
かくして僕の個人的な見解がイントラネットに掲載され、みんなに公開されることになった。先生のお褒めの言葉はどれほど本当か分からないけれど、忙しいマネジメントゲームの間を縫って書いてみて良かった。自分自身、とても誇らしく思う。
---(以下、原文通り添付。正確性についてはこの際目をつむって下さい。)---
Dear Mr. Tim Zak,
In today's class, we will talk about Toyota. As a Japanese student, I would like to share my personal idea about Toyota's strength.
There are lots of tools or techniques which Toyota invented like Kanban, Jidoka or JIT and many other companies have analyzed and adopted them. However, I do not think just imitating these tools or techniques will be enough to be Toyota. Toyota's true strength is not in its tools or techniques.
In my view, Toyota's strength is in (1) bunch of talented employees, (2) continuous efforts among all employee to be more efficient and better and (3) being a Japanese company.
As to (1), Toyota has a lot of talented employees. In Japan, many talented students from top universities want to work for Toyota. Receiving a job offer from Toyota is an evidence of talent. Also, Toyota is famous for hiring only new graduates as white collar workers. So, generally, the only way to work for Toyota as a white collar is to get in the company shortly after graduation. This enables Toyota to educate and build new talented employees to be "Toyota guys."
As to (2), all Toyota employees are required to continuously make their efforts to be more efficient and better. One of my best friends is working for Toyota Industries Corporation, a 100% subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation. He always tells me that in Toyota, everybody has to draw a fault analysis tree to find out a problem when he/she makes a mistake or bad things happen. According to him, even when an unofficial drinking party among Toyota employees was not fan, the host person had to draw such tree to analyze the reason and to prevent recurring. It is the shared DNA among all Toyota employees to look for, analyze and solve problems.
Lastly, as to (3), I believe being a Japanese company is one of the reason for Toyota's success. Toyota's strength is in, as I mentioned earlier, employee's continuous efforts. Each effort is very small, but accumulated efforts make huge difference, especially in a manufacturing plant. When I first came to the US to attend Tepper school last year, I was surprised at the inefficiency of operations at MacDonald's. Employees at MacDonald's in the US, in general, do not have morale at all and they are very slow to serve food. Customers have to wait for at least 5 or 10 minutes. In Japan, on the other hand, almost all employees at MacDonald's work hard to serve food for customers as quickly as possible. Some years ago, MacDonald's in Japan adopted "sand clocks" to check whether serving operation was completed within targeted time. Namely, when a customer comes in and a clerk receives an order, a clerk turns over a sand clock. The sand clock is for one minute, and a clerk is required to serve food within one minute. This system tells briefly about MacDonald's effort to be effective in Japan. In Japan, customer's expectation for service is so high that all the Japanese companies and systems are required to be effective (at least in the business world). So, back to Toyota, Japanese people are used to be effective and such characteristics of people make it possible to pursue efficiency at Toyota.
(Regarding this topic, when Toyota built a first factory in the US, Toyota looked for a candidate site in a rural area. Generally speaking, people in the US do not care about minor details and their expectation for effectiveness is generally low. However, Toyota production system requires all employee's care about minor details and effectiveness. So, Toyota decided to build their factory in a rural area, where Toyota could employ farmers who got used to be effective and economic to grow crops.)
The above may not be new to you, but I hope this gives you any insights. Also, I know I should talk about this during the class, but I still have some difficulties in explaining things in English, so I wrote this e-mail instead.
I look forward for joining today's class.
Best regard,
Akio YAMASAKI
当然トヨタ式生産方式はアメリカでもかなり研究されているようで、先生のみならずアメリカ人の生徒からも、トヨタではこんなことをしていて、、、なんて話が出てくる。日本人としてとても誇らしく思うとともに、「間違っている訳ではないけれど、それってどうもピンとこないな」なんて思うことも多い。その都度できるだけ発言しようとしているのだけれど、いまいちうまく伝えきれずもどかしく思うことばかり。
そんなわけで、トヨタについて特に重点的に学ぶ授業の前に、思い切って自分なりの見解をまとめて先生に送ってみた。授業中では伝えきれない思いも込めて。
授業が始まる前、教室で準備をしていると、先生がつかつかと寄ってきた。「今日メールを送ってくれたのは君かい?素晴らしい。素晴らしい内容だ。君の許可が得られればイントラネットに掲載したいのだけれど、いいかい?」答えはもちろん「Of course!」
かくして僕の個人的な見解がイントラネットに掲載され、みんなに公開されることになった。先生のお褒めの言葉はどれほど本当か分からないけれど、忙しいマネジメントゲームの間を縫って書いてみて良かった。自分自身、とても誇らしく思う。
---(以下、原文通り添付。正確性についてはこの際目をつむって下さい。)---
Dear Mr. Tim Zak,
In today's class, we will talk about Toyota. As a Japanese student, I would like to share my personal idea about Toyota's strength.
There are lots of tools or techniques which Toyota invented like Kanban, Jidoka or JIT and many other companies have analyzed and adopted them. However, I do not think just imitating these tools or techniques will be enough to be Toyota. Toyota's true strength is not in its tools or techniques.
In my view, Toyota's strength is in (1) bunch of talented employees, (2) continuous efforts among all employee to be more efficient and better and (3) being a Japanese company.
As to (1), Toyota has a lot of talented employees. In Japan, many talented students from top universities want to work for Toyota. Receiving a job offer from Toyota is an evidence of talent. Also, Toyota is famous for hiring only new graduates as white collar workers. So, generally, the only way to work for Toyota as a white collar is to get in the company shortly after graduation. This enables Toyota to educate and build new talented employees to be "Toyota guys."
As to (2), all Toyota employees are required to continuously make their efforts to be more efficient and better. One of my best friends is working for Toyota Industries Corporation, a 100% subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation. He always tells me that in Toyota, everybody has to draw a fault analysis tree to find out a problem when he/she makes a mistake or bad things happen. According to him, even when an unofficial drinking party among Toyota employees was not fan, the host person had to draw such tree to analyze the reason and to prevent recurring. It is the shared DNA among all Toyota employees to look for, analyze and solve problems.
Lastly, as to (3), I believe being a Japanese company is one of the reason for Toyota's success. Toyota's strength is in, as I mentioned earlier, employee's continuous efforts. Each effort is very small, but accumulated efforts make huge difference, especially in a manufacturing plant. When I first came to the US to attend Tepper school last year, I was surprised at the inefficiency of operations at MacDonald's. Employees at MacDonald's in the US, in general, do not have morale at all and they are very slow to serve food. Customers have to wait for at least 5 or 10 minutes. In Japan, on the other hand, almost all employees at MacDonald's work hard to serve food for customers as quickly as possible. Some years ago, MacDonald's in Japan adopted "sand clocks" to check whether serving operation was completed within targeted time. Namely, when a customer comes in and a clerk receives an order, a clerk turns over a sand clock. The sand clock is for one minute, and a clerk is required to serve food within one minute. This system tells briefly about MacDonald's effort to be effective in Japan. In Japan, customer's expectation for service is so high that all the Japanese companies and systems are required to be effective (at least in the business world). So, back to Toyota, Japanese people are used to be effective and such characteristics of people make it possible to pursue efficiency at Toyota.
(Regarding this topic, when Toyota built a first factory in the US, Toyota looked for a candidate site in a rural area. Generally speaking, people in the US do not care about minor details and their expectation for effectiveness is generally low. However, Toyota production system requires all employee's care about minor details and effectiveness. So, Toyota decided to build their factory in a rural area, where Toyota could employ farmers who got used to be effective and economic to grow crops.)
The above may not be new to you, but I hope this gives you any insights. Also, I know I should talk about this during the class, but I still have some difficulties in explaining things in English, so I wrote this e-mail instead.
I look forward for joining today's class.
Best regard,
Akio YAMASAKI
by mellon2007
| 2006-09-15 21:03
| 学校生活