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Hello!
Allow me to introduce myself – my name is Hideshi Yokoi. In 2008, I was appointed to succeed Mr. Hajime Ohba as President of TSSC. I feel that it is quite an honor to lead TSSC, an organization that has strived to help many companies implement TPS in North America. In 2009 we are changing our company name to Toyota Production System Support Center, Inc. (it is still abbreviated TSSC, Inc) to better reflect our mission: to contribute to society by sharing TPS know-how with any organization that is interested. TSSC has worked with many organizations since 1992 – many of which have successfully implemented TPS. Although more and more organizations are trying to implement TPS, we still hear comments such as “We don’t see much result from doing TPS” and “It worked well for a while, but it went back to the way it was.” Why is this so? In many cases, these companies are looking for magical tools or standard recipes for change. We believe lasting change can only be achieved through passion and commitment to improvement. Management and Team Members must demonstrate that passion by working together to solve “true” problems one by one on the shop floor. TPS is founded on the fundamentals of problem solving. More specifically, Toyota’s approach is to establish a current standard, clarify our target condition, then work to make our gap to the target visible. It is important then to tenaciously solve individual problems until we find the root cause. This will help us achieve our target and we can then set a new standard. If we continue this cycle, it inevitably leads to higher quality, decreased lead-time, and lower cost. We also can equip ourselves to be flexible so that productivity is maintained or can be improved regardless of outside factors (i.e., economic condition). Management is responsible for providing a challenging environment where people can openly discuss and attack problems and grow through these challenges. Are you interested in working together to learn a different way of thinking and looking at things? We believe implementing TPS honestly, and uncompromisingly, can bring an entirely new level of success within your industry. Best regards,
Hideshi Yokoi |
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