Comprehensive Report: Knowledge Management at Toyota Motor Corporation

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of knowledge management at Toyota Motor Corporation. It explores Toyota's efforts in knowledge creation, dissemination, and preservation, highlighting the role of the Toyota Production System (TPS) and Toyota University. The report delves into the special characteristics of knowledge management at Toyota, including its physical environment, database software, and dynamic learning processes. It examines the transfer of knowledge to employees through training programs and the influence of Toyota Way principles. Furthermore, the report discusses the contribution of Japanese culture to knowledge management at Toyota, comparing Toyota's learning organization with Honda's. It also covers the tacit and explicit knowledge approaches, outlining their advantages and disadvantages. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of continuous improvement in Toyota's knowledge management strategies, recommending the adoption of interrogative questions, effective communication, and learning networks.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
TOYOTA

WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT?
“Any structured activity that improves an
organization’s capacity to acquire, share,
and utilize knowledge in ways that
improves its survival and success”
(Oyemomi et al., 2016)

TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION
 Founded in 1937 by Kiichiro Toyoda
 Japanese automobile manufacturing company (Moritaa and Moritab,
2015)
 Headquartered in Aichi, Japan
 Have 338, 875 employees all around the globe
 In 2012, it is the largest automobile manufacturer (by production)
(Hasegawa, 2018)

TOYOTA’S EFFORTS IN TERMS OF KNOWLEDGE CREATION,
DISSEMINATION AND PRESERVATION
Knowledge
Creation Spiral

a) Toyota is focused on research, innovation and development.
b) It has developed Toyota University (Du, Yalcinkaya & Bstieler, 2016)
c) The organisational culture of Toyota is supportive of the knowledge
sharing and the conversion of tacit knowledge into the explicit
knowledge.
d) Adopted knowledge management (KM) systems for better
performance (TPS- Toyota Production System).

SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT AT TOYOTA

KNOWLEDGE SHARING
Physical Environment Database Software Dynamic learning
process
a) Large open space
b) Workers are likely to
exchange ideas and
share information
a) It records all its
problems, best practices
and operations
b) It is used as the
database and a library
by a continuous
reporting from the part
of the employees
a) The company points out
the fact that the people
could learn from one
another
b) It does not have any
control over all the
activities.

TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE TO TOYOTA’S EMPLOYEES
 Establishing Toyota University for training the employees
and the dealers
 Training new employees by working with the highly trained
managers and the groups of skilled workers to make them
better understand the “Toyota Way” (Jayamaha et al.,
2014)

HOW TOYOTA WAY PRINCIPLES HELP KM AT TOYOTA?
4p model of Toyota way

TO WHAT EXTENT DOES JAPANESE CULTURE CONTRIBUTE TO
KM AT TOYOTA
 Knowledge sharing culture
 Family type management system
 Implies collectivistic society with male domination
 Very strict rules and laws during work
 Long-term orientation
 Continuous improvement and learning
 Respect for people
 Teamwork
 Mutual trust

COMPARISON BETWEEN TOYOTA AND HONDA (IN TERMS OF
LEARNING ORGANIZATION )
TOYOTA’s Learning Organisation HONDA’s Learning Organisation
The learning organisation of Toyota has 3
key elements:
a) Identifying the root causes and
developing the “countermeasures”.
b) Using hansei
c) Utilising the policy deployment.
a) It is translating new knowledge into
new ways of behaving.
b) It has actively managed its learning
process to ensure that it is continuous
and well planned (Quaye et al., 2015).
c) It implements new technology
d) It focuses on teamwork

TACIT AND EXPLICIT KNOWLEDGE APPROACH
Tacit knowledge approach Explicit knowledge approach
a) Analysis of the problems and
performance in productivity and
quality at the end of every week for
one to two hours (Chuang, Jackson &
Jiang, 2016)
b) Proposing “countermeasures” for
correcting the identified issues and
discussing the results.
c) In Quality Circle group settings the
employee make personal interactions.
a) Documenting the task in a way that
every team of workers and every
individual worker is asked for
performing