Supply Chain

What If Toyota Ran The Prisons

March 6, 2007

Most of the cars in the LA Police Department's fleet are Fords (specifically, the Crown Victoria Police Interceptors, or CVPIs), which explains why you see so many Fords on TV cop shows. However, when it comes to actually running the LAPD, the automaker of choice is clearly Toyota.

Today's Wall Street Journal (Mar. 5, 2007) features an article about Toyota University, the automaker's in-house training center that occasionally helps train outside organizations that seemingly have nothing at all to do with manufacturing cars. And one such organization is the LAPD. By studying Toyota's lean production techniques, the LAPD figured out ways to better process inmates through booking, as well as eliminating a lot of wasted time in food preparation. It may not sound like that big a deal at first, but that's the nature of continuous improvement a lot of little ideas add up to a big overall gain; in the case of the LAPD, savings as much as $1 million per year.

In fact, Toyota U has also trained representatives from the U.S. Department of Defense on better material handling techniques.

The article also notes in passing that Toyota U is currently closed to the outside world, since recent problems with recalls has made it necessary to populate the classrooms with Toyota employees needing a refresher in lean management.

Click here to hear a WSJ interview with the LAPD captain about the leaning of the police department.

About the Author

Dave Blanchard Blog | Senior Editor

Focus: Supply Chain

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Contributing Editor Dave Blanchard provides the IndustryWeek audience his expertise in lean supply chain, reporting on topics from logistics, procurement and inventory management to warehousing and distribution. He also specializes in business finance news and analysis, writing on such topics as corporate finance and tax, cost management, governance, risk and compliance, and budgeting and reporting.

Dave is also the chief editor of Penton Media’s Business Finance and editorial director of Material Handling & Logistics.

With over 25 years of experience, Dave literally wrote the book on supply chain management, Supply Chain Management Best Practices (John Wiley & Sons, 2010), and is a frequent speaker at industry events. Dave is an award-winning journalist and has been twice named one of the nation’s top columnists by the American Society of Business Publications Editors.

Dave received his B.A. in English from Northern Illinois University, and was a high school teacher prior to his joining the publishing industry. He is married and has two daughters.