Toyota manufacturing pioneer trains with Arkansas companies

Professor Isao Yoshino is a 40-year Toyota executive and a former NUMMI (New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc.) training manager. Based in Japan, he trained American workers who traveled from Freemont, Calif., to Japan to learn Toyota’s culture there. He then became a professor at Nagoya Gakuin University in Nagoya. He recently retired, but still teaches classes.

Last week, Yoshino was in Arkansas speaking to manufacturing executives at a workshop held by Arkansas Economic Development Commission Manufacturing Solutions at the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce headquarters. Talk Business & Politics caught up with Yoshino for a conversation.

TB&P: What exactly is NUMMI and its methodology, and how was it created?

Isao Yoshino: NUMMI is a joint venture between Toyota and GM. Because in the late ‘70s and ‘80s, there was a big pressure on the Japanese auto manufacturers from the U.S. government to seriously consider establishing the plant, building the plant, and hiring American people, actually local manufacturing. And that was kind of a strong need from the American government. So Toyota just started exploring the opportunity. Ford started to discuss, but it didn’t work out. So then GM brought up some ideas about a vacant plant. They had a vacant plant in Freemont, California, and using UAW people, that was a starting point.

Actually, Toyota was the third Japanese manufacturer to come to this country to manufacture cars. Honda came in in ’82. Nissan came in in ’83. Toyota, ’84. So it was that timing that all the Japanese manufacturers seriously considered building cars in this country. So it started from the GM side, and Toyota just started seriously thinking about it. That’s how it started. Honda and Nissan, they established their own plants by themselves, so the situation is a lot different.

TB&P: When it was implemented in the U.S., it was credited with turning around the auto industry. What were the results in your estimation?

Yoshino: Because of that condition – a GM and Toyota joint venture – Toyota needed to hire a major part of the employees from ex-GM people who had been laid off. It was a kind of condition that you cannot choose as you like. But ex-GM people, it was a confrontation type of situation – confrontation between managers and laborers. So it was a very, very challenging job, because Toyota has never had an experience to have workers from under that type of labor union. It was so difficult.

However, Toyota believed that … if we can succeed in making a success, then we can do everything. We can do anything. So Toyota decided for us to try to do the hardest part, hardest trial. … Confrontation was what’s going on, but Toyota has cooperation, or a collaboration, 180 degrees different. So we thought this is so important to have NUMMI employees to understand Toyota’s way of doing things. So we hoped that the NUMMI employees can learn how to manufacture cars the Toyota way. It’s not an easy job, so we provided all kinds of training programs, including three weeks of training in Japan. We brought in close to 2,000 total, so many shop floor leaders to Japan, for a three-week training – one week classroom, but two weeks we put them in the actual production line and worked together with the Japanese counterpart. So hands-on training was a great opportunity to make them (understand what) the Toyota production system was all about. Even though it’s not long enough, they witnessed what was going on. Then they recognized that, oh, collaboration exists over here, not confrontation. They understand. They just sense it. Actually, they witnessed. Gradually, it became a kind of culture, new culture, which was believed to be impossible because changing the culture is so difficult, but actually it happened. So that is the basis of the success.

TB&P: You’re here in Arkansas speaking with manufacturing executives about this effort and process. How can the lessons learned from the auto industry work in other areas? Does Arkansas have something unique like the auto industry that this could apply to?

Yoshino: Actually, Toyota’s production system, it’s called ‘lean (production) system.’ … That deals with a key concept, so it can be applied to anything, not only the manufacturing. It’s reducing the cost, and in-house efficiency, and taking care of the people. All those things can be applied to anything, even a personal, small group, or even in the sales group or whatever, not necessarily manufacturing. So I believe it can be applied to anything, as long as key people, which is the managers, management people are serious about it. Without managers’ seriousness and actual involvement or determination, this won’t happen because collaboration cannot be attained without managers’ key determination and the support or caretaking. They have to be determined to take care of the people working for them.