1. How has Toyota managed to overcome the paradox between continuous improvement and standardization?

What is the
scientific method? What is the role of the scientific method at Toyota? Which rule or practice appears to make the most sense
for your workplace? You may modify it if you wish.
Toyota overcomes the paradox between continues improvement and standardization by changing their scientific method of
experimentations. After working more than five decades they know what works best. Doing some important experiments they
tried to do research that what is our ability and what skills we have. Constant activities and processes put them into
continuous improvements and innovation. Scientific Method is the remedies for paradox between continuous improvement
and standardization. Toyota has a unique problem solving task and that lead them into continues improvements. They put
scientific methods and four rules into the scripted process flows. If there is any product introduced they send it to research and
see the various aspects of the product. Once it comes back from the research it needs to be sent to production and once it
comes from production they find out whether it is successful or not. If the product is not successful it will never go to the next
stage. A stated earlier, in Toyota system all rules requires activities and flow paths. They have simple and direct pathway to
save lot of time for the company. If they want to make any changes they use rigorous problem solving system that requires
detailed assessment of the current state of affairs and a plan for improvement that is , in effect, an experimental test of the
proposed changes. Their operations are flexible and adaptable. In addition, the problem solving process made them grow
naturally. The practice of rule 1 Make the most sense to my work place. When we hire any candidates they got to brig training
and their main focus is on the timing and the quality as an outcome for the organization.
2. What is different about Toyota's application of lean thinking vs. other companies? Some people say that Toyota doesn't
really practice lean thinking. They certainly don't appear to optimize many individual parts of the system. For
example, they don't pool the inventory. It almost sounds like they are sacrificing some optimization to ensure the
consistent implementation of their managerial system. Do you agree with this? Do you see any other practices that
appear counter-intuitive?
The lean thing is a method to improve effectiveness and output. The difference between Toyota application of lean thinking and other
companies is pooling inventory. Toyota has a concept of zero inventory and which is the heart of their system. These ideal system
would in fact have no need for inventory. Toyota mainly focus on the zero waste, no defects, and continuous improvement in the
quality of their products. For Toyota, The inventory would have many owners, and the reasons for its use would become ambiguous.
Pooling the inventory thus muddles both the ownership and cause of the problems, making it difficult to introduce improvements. As
we see in other company, their goal is to success in productivity, outcomes, and keeping very low inventory. Toyota has different

aspect to think about their inventory and they achieve this by their rigid process flow system. Furthermore, it has unique problem
solving and interactive learning process.
3. How has the Aisin Mattress factory been able to overcome the tradeoffs between product range, inventory reduction, and
productivity? Can any of this be applied to your work setting?
For product range, they made thousands of the changes in individual activities. In the plant, mattress assembly workers being taught to
improve their problem solving skills by redesigning their work. Before this process they were only responsible for their own work but
not the solving problems. For inventory reduction, the workers were assigned a leader who trained them to frame problems better and
to formulate and test hypotheses- in other in other words, leader taught them how to use the scientific method to design their team's
work in accordance with the first three rules. The results were impressive. One of the team's accomplishments, for instance, was to
redesign the way edging tape was attached to the mattresses, thereby reducing the defect rate by 90%. Thus the process remains the
same even at the highest levels. For productivity, we found that the plant manager took responsibility for leading the change from
three production lines back to two (the number had risen to three to cope with an increase in product types).Also, the leader was
involved not just because it was a big change but also because he had operational responsibility for overseeing the way work flowed
from the feeder lines to the final assembly lines.
4.

Please relate the application/ misapplication of the work rules mentioned in the article to your work or other experiences. Do you see a place in your
environment (work or otherwise) for their applicability?

Rule 1: All work shall be highly specified as to content, sequence, timing, and outcome.
At our hotel, our content specified as a taking courses online and once they come back we give them practical
knowledge of following steps, How to make reservation, what needs to be done before guest come to
property, breakfast attendant training and their steps involve which items go where to make sure there is not
aline for guest to wait for their food. how to take reservation, how to do walking
. The steps could be applied to how rooms get cleaned for the next guest. So rule one would be to have a fixed
procedure for the different steps,

Rule 2: Every customer supplier connection must be direct, and there must be an unambiguous yes-or-no way to send
requests and receive responses.
le 3: The pathway for every product and service must be simple and direct
Rule 4: Any improvement must be made in accordance with the scientific method, under the guidance of a teacher, at the
lowest possible level in the organization.

If I remember correctly (sorry if I'm wrong), I though your parents run a hotel/motelrule #2 would
apply to employees would get requests and indicate rooms were ready, or communicate that, for
example, someone had "trashed" the room and the damage needed special documentation. #3
might be related to how the cleaners flow through different rooms, #4 would be about looking at
service times and coming up with changes that might make thing more efficient.

The Four Rules

The tacit knowledge that underlies the Toyota

Production System can be captured in four basic

rules. These rules guide the design, operation, and
improvement of every activity, connection, and
pathway for every product and service.The rules are
as follows:
Rule 1: All work shall be highly specified as to
content, sequence, timing, and outcome.
Rule 2: Every customer supplier connection must be
direct, and there must be an unambiguous yes-or-no
way to send requests and receive responses.
Rule 3: The pathway for every product and service
must be simple and direct.
Rule 4: Any improvement must be made in
accordance with the scientific method, under the
guidance of a teacher, at the lowest possible level in
the organization.
All the rules require that activities, connections, and
flow paths have built-in tests to signal problems
automatically. It is the continual response to problems
that makes this seemingly rigid system so flexible and
adaptable to changing circumstances.