Toyota Production System: Cultural Fit and TPS Principles

TPS Alignment with U.S. Cultural Norms

Several aspects of the Toyota Production System (TPS) align significantly with cultural norms in U.S. society, while others stand in contrast. One key TPS aspect is process orientation. According to TPS, one ought to focus on the process and the results will follow. This connects with American culture in that American workplaces are strongly results-oriented — employees do whatever they deem necessary in order to attain the desired outcome, with the objective firmly set on the completion or realization of results.

However, TPS also differs from American cultural norms in important ways. TPS emphasizes refining value processes that will instigate the correct outcomes — specifically, the curtailing of waste (muda), not overstraining persons or equipment (muri), and not generating irregular production levels (mura). A useful analogy here is the fable of the tortoise and the hare: TPS favors the creation of a high-quality procedure that is unhurried yet constantly moving, rather than one that is high in quantity, speedy, but subject to frequent halts (Mariano, 2009).

Another TPS aspect relevant to cultural comparison is its emphasis on people and partners. Toyota places significant value on human innovation in its business operations. This contrasts with Western organizational culture, where frontline personnel typically do not make frontline decisions — those are instead made by individuals ranked higher in the organization. In many American workplaces, that sense of empowerment at the ground level is largely absent. At Toyota, by contrast, frontline personal contribution is valued and continuously sought.

A further point of cultural divergence involves problem solving. Toyota's incremental and iterative improvement methodology runs counter to the American cultural tendency captured by the phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." TPS-based problem solving involves not only identifying problems as they arise, but continuously searching for their root cause (Mariano, 2009).

The chocolate factory scenario featuring Lucy and Ethel offers a useful lens through which to examine undesirable work across five TPS-relevant dimensions, imagining that other departments exist within the factory and each has its own functions.

Lucy and Ethel's Undesirable Work: A Systems Analysis

The system in this scenario is undesirable for several reasons. Delivery is not handled one request at a time but rather occurs continuously, meaning the supply of chocolates surpasses the demand requested. This creates inefficiency, and when the presence of other departments is taken into account, the overall system environment becomes unstable. The output also contains a number of defects, further signaling systemic failure.

Every product and service must flow along a simple and direct pathway. One of the flaws generating undesirable work is the failure to spot errors and blunders as they occur in the process. Compounding this is the absence of a clearly specified path and the fact that neither Lucy nor Ethel is fully proficient in her role.

Every connection within a production system must be standardized and unambiguous. In this scenario, gray areas remain unresolved — for instance, there is no mechanism to determine whether Lucy and Ethel have finished packaging one piece of chocolate before another piece is sent their way. There is also no direct connection between Lucy and Ethel and their manager, which further undermines coordination.

Desirable activities must have clear content, proper sequencing, correct timing, and defined outcomes. In this scenario, the chocolates do not arrive in a sequential manner that allows the workers to take proper action, which leads directly to errors and mistakes (Spear, 2004).

The undesirable work in this dimension stems from the failure to examine not only failures but also successes. The manager does not observe the workers' output closely enough to detect the mistakes being made, leaving no basis for meaningful improvement.