Knowledge Management Practices at Toyota Motors
| Case Code: ITSY048 Case Length: 19 Pages Period: 1943-2005 Pub Date: 2005 Teaching Note: Available |
Price: Rs.500 Organization: Toyota Industry: Automobiles Countries: Japan Themes: Information Technology |
Abstract Case Intro 1 Case Intro 2 Excerpts
Knowledge as Power
In 2004 Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) was Japan's largest company and the world's second largest automobile company with worldwide unit sales of 6.7 million. It was recognized as one of the world's best knowledge enterprises, and was a three-time winner of the Global Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises (MAKE) Survey, and a five-time winner of the MAKE Japan Survey. This award recognizes best practices in the area of Knowledge Management. The survey studied enterprises on criteria like knowledge-based culture and products; knowledge sharing and collaboration; as well as organizational learning.
Most experts believed that successful Knowledge Management (KM) had given Toyota a keen competitive edge. Toyota's Production System (TPS) manufactured a variety of high-quality vehicles at very low cost. Toyota had been extremely open about its TPS. Company sources were quoted to have said, "Study us all you want".
Still no other company was able to match Toyota's production system despite decades of effort. The world's largest automaker, General Motors (GM), entered into an alliance with Toyota to see its production systems in action and learn the intricacies, but could not match Toyota standards.
According to a study6, DaimlerChrysler, one of the "Big Three" auto firms, acknowledged that its KM initiatives had been actually inspired by Toyota's Yokoten8 system...
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