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1.7. Pull System

Under a 'push' system, there is little opportunity for workers to gain wisdom because they just produce according to the instructions they are given. In contrast, a 'pull' system asks the worker to use his or her head to come up with a manufacturing process where he or she alone must decide what needs to be made and how quickly it needs to be made.

2. Re-engineering

Re-engineering has been a major factor for the success of Toyota. Consider a Toyota model, which is newly introduced in the market, failed to impress the market. The next Toyota strategy will be to re-engineer the model, i.e., completely alter the failed model using the same production facility. This method is not practiced at General Motors and Ford. Once a GM / Ford vehicle fails in the market, the whole manufacturing facility for manufacturing the model is scrapped and the employees are often pushed out of the company. This results in loosing the knowledge gained at great cost.

3. Superior Technology & Quality

All Toyota production facilities are designed in such a way so as to ensure flexibility, so that Toyota production facilities around the world could easily add / switch new models or ramp-up production of existing models within a short period while ensuring the top quality traditionally associated with the Toyota brand. Robots are used widely in mass production. By allowing the choice of either people or robots depending upon profitability, the production line offers the flexibility to handle everything from low-volume to mass production.

Toyota's quality control during production ensures that the correct materials and parts are used and fitted with precision and accuracy. This effort is combined with thousands of rigorous inspections performed by team members during the production process.

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* Contributed by -
Shine Jose Manjooran,
Ist Year - PGDBM,
XIME, Bangalore.