Page 249 - Toyota Under Fire

TOYOT A UNDER FIRE

The answer to the fifth why might be: “We have been too busy
building vehicles to dedicate the time and effort to working up
front with Engineering or to train our team members to assemble
challenging designs without defects.”
The point is that when you define the problem as something
that is within your domain of control, when you take responsi-
bility, there is always something that you can do to improve the
situation, but pointing fingers freezes innovative thinking. A true
culture of responsibility allows you to perceive opportunities for
improvement everywhere, even in areas that at first seem to be
beyond your control.

Lesson 3: Even the Best Culture
Develops Weaknesses

There’s no question that, after years of studying the company, we
believe that Toyota’s investment in a shared culture of continu-
ous improvement is remarkable and practically unique. For evi-
dence of the success of that investment, one need look no further
than the company’s nearly continuous rise over the last 60 years.
Despite that commitment and investment, however, the com-
pany still encountered difficulties that were directly attributable
to weaknesses in its culture. Toyota failed to live up to its own
standards in a number of areas.
The lesson here is that even the best culture can and will de-
velop weaknesses. If Toyota, despite all it does to inculcate the
Toyota Way throughout the company, is susceptible to a weaken-
ing of culture, then everyone is. There is simply no realistic way
to avoid it. Toyota’s experiences show that the greatest threat to a
culture of continuous improvement is success.

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