For decades, Toyota has been a leading supplier of innovative forklifts –– one in every five forklifts around the world is a Toyota. The quality, durability, reliability and overall value of a Toyota Forklift, is what makes it so highly regarded. This is a result of the Toyota Production System and lean manufacturing. It’s our foundation for success and reason for your purchase of a Toyota forklift, ensuring that you’re getting the highest quality product on the market. Let us show you what quality, durability, reliability, and overall value means to us:
Quality: Kaizen, one of Toyota’s philosophies, is the concept of always improving the quality of its products. Employees at Toyota’s production facilities are encouraged to offer suggestions to better improve the processes and production of all Toyota Forklifts. A 2015 study conducted by Peerless Research ranked Toyota Forklifts number one in quality for 11 years in a row!
Durability: A Toyota Forklift owner stated they have ten Toyota trucks, each with 20,000 hours or more, and they still run with excellent run time and minimal downtime. Toyota Forklifts are manufactured to stay strong and keep running!
Reliability: Toyota forklifts may get a lot of use, but they are designed to need less maintenance and to be more energy efficient than other brands. A regular preventative maintenance plan is all a Toyota fleet needs to keep running.
Value: With environmentally-friendly and fuel efficient forklifts, Toyota gives you multiple ways to boost your savings! Toyota ranked number one for both value and for the lowest cost of ownership, in the study mentioned above, for 11 years in a row.
The Toyota Production System and lean management philosophy is founded on a set of principles –– all built on practice, striving for improvement, and people dedicated to success. They include the following:
Challenge: Maintaining a long-term vision while courageously and creatively meeting all steps towards realizing that vision.
Kaizen: Continuous Improvement. There is always room for improvements, no process is ever declared perfect.
Genchi Genbutsu: Going to the source to find the facts, allowing you to make correct decisions, build consensus, and achieve goals.
Respect: Always respect others. Build mutual trust, accept responsibility, and make an effort to understand others.
Teamwork: Maximize individual and team performance, by sharing opportunities for development and stimulating individual/team performance.
How does Kaizen lead to success in the Toyota Production Systems?
Kaizen identifies problems at their source and involves all employees making improvements on a continuous basis. Kaizen can make a difference at your company in 3 ways –– by reducing waste, giving immediate results, and improving employee retention.
It can reduce waste in areas such as overproduction, worker movement, waiting times,
and inventory. Continuous small changes are usually easy to apply, giving you immediate results. Kaizen also gives employees a greater responsibility for their job by including them in the process, resulting in higher employee morale and job satisfaction.
Toyota’s 5S Approach
Implementing Toyota’s famous 5S philosophy can easily be applied to a wide variety of industries, not just manufacturing. The 5S approach to organization and workplace culture is one of the main reasons lean management works, and it can happen at your facility. These 5 steps will help you get started:
Seiri (Sort): Separate necessary items from unnecessary.
Seiton (Straighten): Make a place for everything. Everything must have a proper place.
Seiso (Shine): Maintain a clean work environment. Clean up as you work.
Seiketsu (Standardize): Develop rules that will repeat positive results.
Shitsuke (Sustain): Strive for continued improvement and maintain consistency.
If you’d like to learn more about the value of the Toyota Production System and the ways in which it can benefit your operation, call us at (866) 794-5438!