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Let the line worker change the line
Context on the Line
Under the Toyota production system, the worker on the line has more context than anyone about their own working situation, so that worker is best placed to improve it. The change was subtle and simple, and it empowered the people doing the work.
The Results
Over the same stretch, American cars started sucking while Japanese cars became absolutely incredible.
Japan was traditionally seen as a hierarchical society, and it came up with a bottoms-up way of working. The process power that came out of it carried a generational run of arguably forty years.
How does the andon cord stop a line?
Toyota's production system grew out of ideas from engineer Taiichi Ohno and builds on a principle called jidoka, which means stopping when a defect appears. Along Toyota's lines, any worker who spots a problem can pull an andon cord. That signals a team leader, and if the problem is not fixed in time, the line stops. The practice moved the authority to halt production from managers to the workers at the stations.
How did Toyota's methods reach American plants?
In 1984, General Motors and Toyota opened NUMMI, a joint venture at a former GM plant in Fremont, California. It rehired many former GM workers and ran them under Toyota's production methods. The plant became a widely studied example of the system working with an American workforce. NUMMI closed in 2010.
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