The Toyota Way
The Toyota Way consists of a set of core standards, beliefs and management principles that drive decision-making. There are two major pillars of the Toyota Way:
- Continuous Improvement – we are never satisfied by where we are, always looking for better ways of doing things. The pillar of Continuous Improvement is made up of three elements – Challenge, Kaizen and Genchi Genbutsu, which are described in this booklet.
- Respect for People – the success of the business is due to individual efforts and good teamwork. The pillar of Respect for People is made up of two elements of Respect and Teamwork, which are also described in this booklet.
The Toyota Way is about how we go about our everyday activity to achieve the goals of our business. In essence it is a structured and thorough approach to business activity.
In this booklet the Toyota Way is presented as a series of aspects to consider in carrying out your work i.e. steps to undertake, questions to ask of yourself, and others, to ensure you are following the Toyota Way. In effect, they are checklists for you to use.
How does the Toyota Way relate to TGB’s Employee Values?
The Toyota Way is a structured approach to our business activity, whereas the TGB Employee Values describe the behaviours we need to demonstrate in order to ensure we can operate the Toyota Way methodology effectively. The TGB Employee Values therefore underpin the Toyota Way.
There is a large degree of commonality with TGB’s Employee Values and the Toyota Way.
For example:
- Without Open Mindedness and Respect to all points of view, wherever they come from, how can we practice Kaizen?
- Without Open and Honest Communication, how can we get to the root cause of the problem, which is fundamental in carrying out Genchi Genbutsu?
- Without Pride and taking responsibility for continuously providing high standards of service, will we benchmark well against the competition?
- Only by working with and through the whole team of Toyota and Lexus will we achieve our business challenges.