Toyota has long been an advocate of agile development practices. In fact, the company has been using them for over 20 years to develop its vehicles.
The Toyota Production System (TPS) is a set of principles and practices that are designed to optimize manufacturing efficiency. TPS was first developed in the 1950s and has since been adopted by many other companies.
Toyota Production System (TPS) is based on the following principles:
- Continuous improvement: There is always room for improvement, no matter how good the process is.
- Respect for people: Employees should be respected and empowered to do their jobs.
- Lean production: Production should be as efficient as possible, with waste eliminated.
- Just-in-time: Parts should be produced and delivered just in time for them to be used, so there is no need for inventory.
Toyota has applied these principles to its software development process, which it calls Agile Development Process (ADP). ADP is based on the following four pillars:
- Customer focus: The development process should be driven by the needs of the customer.
- Rapid delivery: Software should be delivered quickly, so that it can be used and feedback can be gathered as soon as possible.
- Frequent iterations: The software development process should be divided into small iterations, so that changes can be made quickly and easily.
- Continuous improvement: The software development process should always be improving, so that it can deliver better results.
ADP has helped Toyota to develop some of the most innovative and successful vehicles in the world, such as the Prius and the Lexus LS. The company has also used ADP to develop its infotainment system, which is one of the most advanced in the automotive industry.
Toyota is not the only company that has been using agile development practices. Many other companies, such as Google and Amazon, have also adopted agile methods to develop their products.