Episode 142 - Timelines for Toyota - Part 2

I'm David Veech and this is Elevate your performance.

With Sakichi Toyoda's death in 1930, his Son Kiichiro and nephew Risaburo were left to run his businesses.  As a result of a great earthquake in 1923, which destroyed significant pieces of Japan's railways, demand for automobiles soared.

Ford built a plant in Yokohama in December 1924, beginning production in March of 1925.  In 1927, General Motors began assembly operations in their plant in Osaka.  The surge of vehicles produced by these two plants effectively destroyed Japan's domestic automobile makers at the time.

It wasn't until 1933 that Kiichiro established an Automotive Production Division within the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works.  It began prototyping parts and designs which were reverse-engineered from a 1934 Chrysler DeSoto and a Chevrolet Engine.  Kiichiro had to establish his own steelmaking department as well, because their expected demand from existing steel mills was too low.

They purchased some machines, and converted others from the Loom works to begin making parts.  Kiichiro also sent an engineer to the US from January to July of 1934 to learn more.  That engineer visited 130 plants, 7 research facilities, and 5 universities to study the automotive and machine tool industries.

The Japanese government asked Toyoda to develop a truck as well, so Kiichiro bought a 1934 Ford Truck to use as the model, similar to how he used the DeSoto as the model for their first car.  That first car, the Model A1, was finally finished in May 1935.  The first truck prototype, the G-1 was finished in November that year.  Both were prone to serious defects.

With promising developments in the domestic manufacturing capability, the Japanese government changed the licensing rules, restricting licenses to manufacturers owned by a majority of Japanese citizens, effectively restricting Ford and GM from continuing operations there.  This, despite low output of the 2 domestic manufacturers, Toyoda and Nissan.  By September 1936, Toyota's volume had grown to just 100 vehicles per month.

In 1936, Toyoda hosted a contest to design a new Logo for the company, and changed the name from Toyoda with a D to Toyota with a T, as Industry leaders recommended.  People submitted 27,000 entries with the winner announced in the October 10, 1936 issue of the Toyota News.

They established the Toyota Motor Company in August 1937 and saw their dealer network grow to 22 outlets.  These dealers became significant investors in the new company.

We'll pick up here tomorrow and talk about Japan's entry into World War II.

Give me some feedback.  Let me know what you'd like to know more about.  Post a comment or send me an email.

Have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow.

https://www.toyota-global.com/company/history_of_toyota/75years/text/index.html

Episode 140 - A little on Toyota

I’m David Veech and this is Elevate Your Performance.

I have been a lean teacher, coach, and consultant for over 20 years.  Lean is coupled closely with the Toyota Production System, often simply TPS.  Why?

That goes back to the mid-1980s when the US Auto Industry was struggling to retain market share in the face of a tsunami of imports from Europe, to some extent, and Japan in particular.  MIT launched a project called the International Motor Vehicle Program - IMVP - in 1985.  

The IMVP charter directed it to study not only the automobile industry, but also “…to go beyond conventional research to explore creative mechanisms for industry-government-university interaction on an international basis in order to understand the fundamental forces of industrial change and improve the policy-making process in dealing with change.”  

This quote is from “The Machine that Changed the World - The story of lean production:  How Japan’s secret weapon in the global auto wars will revolutionize western industry.”  The book was the report of the research from the IMVP.

Keep in mind that the IMVP was sponsored and funded by 136 separate companies, universities, and governments.  None was able to individually influence the research.  The researchers went in to study the systems in different companies with as few preconceived notions as possible for regular human beings.

Their analysis, reported in the book I just mentioned, highlighted the radically different approach employed by Toyota in producing automobiles, but also explained it in terms of principles that are universally applicable.  Any business can benefit by understanding the principles of lean production whether you're treating patients, selling insurance, running a supermarket, or even making coffee.

I will spend the next few videos sharing a little about the history of Toyota and how they got to be where they are, and how you can too.

If you need a boost to your lean transformation efforts, or if you recognize that your culture isn't delivering the results you need, maybe I can help.  Send me an email or give me a call.  The contact information is in my profile.

Make today the day you began a transformation to excellence and greatness.

Have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow.

Episode 141 - A brief timeline for Toyota - Part 1

The story of Toyota begins with Sakichi Toyoda who was born in 1867 and began his working life as a carpenter like his father.  

I heard a story once, though, about Sakichi's curiousity.  The story was that he once spent an entire day watching his neighbor's grandmother make a quilt.  In his search for meaningful work, he let the textile industry lead the way.  

What set Sakichi apart is that he wasn't content to be a regular worker.  He keenly observed the functioning of various machines, then set out to make them better.  He got his first patent in 1891 for the Toyoda Hand Loom.  

Through a variety of companies he started, he continued to research and create better and better spinning and weaving equipment.  In 1918, he established Toyoda Boshuku, or Toyoda Spinning and Weaving Company, Ltd. He built a huge plant in Shanghai in 1919 to manufacturer the automatic looms he invented.

In 1924, he completed the Type G Toyoda Automatic Loom that featured an automatic shuttle-changing mechanism, weft-break auto-stop and warp-break auto stop mechanisms and other devices to provide automation, protection, health, and safety.  In 1926, Sakichi incorporated the Toyoda Automatic Loom works to manufacture the Type G.

This loom caught the eye of the world and was licensed to Platt Brothers & Co. Ltd of England in 1929.  The money from this Patent Rights Transfer Agreement was used to launch the Toyota Motor Company.

Sakichi died in October 1930, leaving behind 8 Toyoda companies employing more than 13,000 workers.  Toyota's first set of guiding principles were derived from Sakichi Toyoda's working philosophy and consisted of these 5 points.

1. Always be faithful  to your duties, thereby contributing to the Company and to the overall good.

2. Always be studious and creative, striving to stay ahead of the times.

3. Always be practical and avoid frivolousness.

4. Always strive to build a homelike atmosphere at work that is warm and friendly.

5. Always have respect for God and remember to be grateful at all times.

Simple guidelines are always best.  What about you and your company?  What are your guiding principles?

We'll continue on Toyota timeline over the next few days.  Let me know your questions and I'll do my best to answer them.

Have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow.

Episode 139 - Recap, Reset, Relaunch

I'm David Veech and this is Elevate your Performance.

I have to apologize for letting this series slip.  I've been letting a lot of things distract me from this project.  I really enjoy making these short videos and sharing them with everyone, but the most value I get is simply focusing my thinking for a short period of time each morning and that actually has helped make my day a little smoother.  So it's important for me to get back into this groove.

Let's recap a little with recent episodes.

A few months ago, I reset my production schedule to parallel the outline I have built for a new book on problem solving.  That started back in October 2020.  

I did short video episodes on Why I think problem solving is so important, then some videos on yesterday's, today's, and tomorrow's problems.

I did episodes on the scientific method and the Shewhart cycle, then a few episodes working through my own C4 process including how to use the C4 cards, the C4 worksheet, and a C4 Master Presentation file.

In November, the video schedule really started to slide. After recording 22 episodes in October, I only did 8 in November, 3 in December, 6 in January, 5 in February, and this is just my second one in March.

Since I did that review, I also discovered that I had missed a numbered episode early on, so that my episode numbering scheme was off. My last episode, on March 8th was actually 138 instead of 135.

I am currently designing the capstone course for the Masters of Engineering Management program for the Department of Engineering at The Ohio State University.  That course will be 100% online so I have a bunch of videos I need to record for that.

I have 30 years of course contents that I've organized into a structured library that I want to create online courses and programs for.  I've been making the production of these way too complicated and that has kept me from making the progress I know I need to make on them.

I want to make a series of short How-to videos and give restricted access to these for clients. 

What I'm doing now is building a synchronized schedule that will allow me to get these projects done over the summer.  That's pretty ambitious for me, so I could use your help.

If, when you see one of these videos on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube, I hope you'll just take a second to send me a little note of encouragement.  Even if you don't watch the whole video, leave me a comment or even a quick like.

Thanks in advance!  

Have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow.

Episode 135 - The Telephone

I’m David Veech and this is Elevate Your Performance.

We’ve been looking at the historical progression from craft manufacturing to mass manufacturing and ultimately to lean manufacturing, and drawing connections to a variety of technology - and demand - issues that forced so many of these decisions.

Last time, we discussed the telegraph and the birth of Western Union.  Today, I want to share some discoveries about the telephone and the founding and growth of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company.  Within that story, we want to discover the birth and contributions of Bell Labs for research and development of new technologies, and Western Electric for the manufacturing of those new products and innovation in manufacturing processes.

Western Electric grew from a small shop in Cleveland, first acquired in 1856 by George Shawk to produce telegraph parts.  He partnered with Enos Barton, then sold his own shares to Elisha Gray around 1870.  Elisha Gray was working on a technology to transmit voices over telegraph wires.  Gray and Barton moved the business to Chicago in 1872 and incorporated under the name of Western Electric Manufacturing Company.

Alexander Graham Bell gets credit for inventing the telephone, making it work in 1876 with the now famous line “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.”  This was three days after his patent was issued on March 7, 1876 despite a caveat being filed in the Patent Office by Elisha Gray in 1875, the same year Gray sold his rights to Western Electric to Western Union.

During the summer of 1876, Bell and Watson demonstrated the telephone to the rest of the world at the Centennial International Exposition in Philadelphia, alongside dozens of inventions that demonstrated the value of mass production.

Bell’s work had been funded by Thomas Sanders and Gardiner Greene Hubbard, the fathers of two pupils from his School of Vocal Physiology and Mechanics of Speech in Boston, where he taught deaf and mute children how to communicate.  Incidentally, one of his other students in 1872 was Helen Keller.

After Western Union refused to accept their offer to sell the telephone patent for $100,000, Sanders, Hubbard, and Bell incorporated the Bell Telephone Company in 1877.  In 1881, Bell Telephone Company acquired Western Electric and by 1886, over 150,000 telephones were in service.

As with every other invention of this magnitude, there were hundreds of claims contesting Bell’s patent, many from Western Union.  None was able to withstand the evidence and vigor brought by Bell Telephone, however, so the company continued to grow.

As lines expanded across the country, Bell’s management formed a new company to handle long distance, naming the company the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1885.  In 1899, in response to restrictive laws, the assets of Bell’s companies were consolidated under the AT&T banner, creating a monopoly called Bell System, affectionately known as Ma Bell.  

In 1905, they opened a new manufacturing facility in Cicero, Illinois and named it after the original name of the town - Hawthorne.  The Hawthorne Works became one of the largest single-site employers in the country, with over 45,000 employees at its heyday.  It also hosted dozens, if not hundreds of innovative studies in manufacturing processes and socio-technical systems, including the studies surrounding the famed Hawthorne Effect, which we’ll get to a little later.

More to follow!  I hope you stay with me as I try to keep up with these.  If you’d like to know more about how I use these history lessons to make practical improvements in today’s technology driven companies, book a call with me and let’s have a chat.  I’d be happy to hear about some of the problems you’re experiencing and how we might work together toward effective solutions.

Have a great day and I’ll see you tomorrow.