Toyota Supplier System in Japan and the UK

Abstract

This research program involved the benchmarking, verification visit, semi-structured interview and modelling of a group of 8 first tier and 13 second tier Toyota suppliers in Japan together with a similar grouping in the UK. The benchmarking questionnaires were sent to the participating companies approximately one month before a visit was made. The firms were requested to return the completed questionnaires before the visit date. This was the case in all but one company. Each questionnaire was then individually interrogated to ensure that errors had not occurred during completion. This was primarily achieved by entry onto a comprehensive spreadsheet with predetermined check questions and calculations. This is believed to have identified over 90% of any suspect or missing data at this pre-visit stage.