Comment on LinkedIn post (over the years I have lost trust LinkedIn will honor links into LinkedIn - at times they work often, over the years, they are blocked), so I am not linking to the source.
Why would Toyota allow competitors to see their plants?
"Deep down, they know that the Toyota Production System (TPS) techniques that visitors see on their tours--the kanban cards, andon cords, and quality circles--represent the surface of TPS but not its soul. Toyota isn't worried about giving away any important secrets on a plant tour."
I agree it is true that other companies are not going to copy Toyota's ideas so successfully they would put Toyota at risk.
I think more than that though those that made such decisions early on cared about making the world a better place. Some companies in the USA talk about that but very few care about it. So it is easy to think anyone saying they care about making the world a better place is just making a false claim, likely as a marketing ploy.
When Toyota started doing this the life experience of those making decisions for Toyota very clearly knew the benefits they/Toyota gained from learning from others. Those people and companies helped make Toyota more successful and helping Japan recover from the devastation of World War II. To those that experienced this, it is easy to understand putting helping others above the potential risk of losing some competitiveness by helping competitors.
I do agree those making the decisions of keep sharing what is going on in Toyota now see how little they have to fear based on decades of sharing and seeing how little others have learned and applied what they share - so they have very little to fear.
Toyota has a much bigger risk now of losing focus on what makes them special (respect for people, systems thinking, long term thinking, continual improvement...) than they do from others. By making visible many aspects of how they operate they create a system that reinforces that they continue.
Using a very simple example, it is a lot easier to keep your house clean if you have guests over frequently. If you are going to get lazy it is easier to do if you just don't let others see. If you are letting others see most of us will take care to clean better.
This is just one tiny aspect but I think there is real benefit if you are an executive concerned about maintaining high standards that you open yourself to others. When people are thinking about just skimping on things some there is extra reason to not do so. Also constantly reinforcing your message by having it repeated to visitors over and over, it keeps those ideas top of mind. Obviously this idea is vastly oversimplifying things. But I do believe there are significant system thinking reasons that Toyota's sharing benefits them and helps keep the company focused (much less important than many other things they do but still a benefit).
Related: The Top 21 Executives at Toyota Getting a Raise to a Combined US$14.9 Million (2015) - Long Term Thinking with Respect for People - The Toyota Way – Two Pillars
