Page 158 - Toyota Under Fire
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FOUR
Response and the
Road to Recovery
We view errors as opportunities for learning. Rather than
blaming individuals, the organization takes corrective
actions and distributes knowledge about each experience
broadly.
—The Toyota Way 2001
Toyota is never satisfied with re-
storing the status quo ante or getting back to the steady state that
existed before a problem arose. Instead, the goal is always to solve
the problem in a way that leaves the company better off for the
future than when the problem started. Toyota’s strategy during
the recession (see Chapter 2), when the company spent a great
deal of money in order to build a platform for future profitabil-
ity rather than just cutting back to match revenues, is a good ex-
ample of that drive. This striving to make the company better is
improvement kaizen.
However, many problems don’t allow the company to give
immediate attention, or even attention in the short term, to im-
provement kaizen. They are crises that require immediate action
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