Toyota is Dead? Part 2
In Part 1 (Toyota is Dead? Part 1) I quoted a recent blog in BusinessWeek that suggested because Toyota had it’s FIRST quarterly loss in 70 years they needed to “…rethink supply chain technology…” A sub-heading in the same post reads, “The Limits of Lean: Why Technology Is Now a Must”.
Huh?
Anyhow…read my prior post for my opinion about this conclusion. Whatever anyone’s opinions numbers ultimately tell the story. Today Toyota announced a return to profitability in the latest quarter. I doubt new supply chain technology had anything to do with the return to (quarterly) profitability, just as a lack of technology had nothing to do with the previous (quarterly) loss. Both the recent loss and recent-er gain were driven by unique events (government programs helped this quarter, while crashing auto sales hurt the previous quarter).
Einstein famously said… ‘make things as simple as possible, but not simpler’. As humans and Americans in particular we’re constantly pinning ‘simpler than possible’ conclusions and solutions on problems that are warranted by the facts on the ground (i.e., when in doubt, computerize something).
The power of lean is that it’s simple.
The real power of lean, and in particular lean as practices by Toyota, is that it’s not simpler, in Einsteining terms.
It’s a simple but comprehensive approach to business, to production, to product development, to business planning, to structuring work, to structuring teams, to just about everything one does in a business. And it’s an approach that is focused on and works over the long-term. Nothing demonstrates better than Toyota’s many-decade’s-long history of profits..except perhaps the fact that Toyota is now the world’s largest automaker, and Detroit is surviving on hand-outs. Better products and better profits come out of better processes.
Far from reaching it’s limits, I suspect (and fear) the power of lean is only starting to be felt by those companies who look to technology to save them.
