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Business strategy

Our mission is represented by idea of the “lean enterprise” of Toyota. Our motto shows what values we appreciate mostly, what is the most important for us and decides of achieving the success. The strategy of TideSoftware.pl is based on experience, organization and the way of thinking that matches the Toyota Way. We treat it as our own organism that is built basing on DNA with two sets:

• The concept of the company – the Toyota Way
• Production – “Toyota system of production”

The concept of the Toyota Way

Our concept is to realize the company’s market assumptions in innovative way. We focus on people, this is the way to achieve our business’s goals. The key principle of whole organization is to build a “dream team” that cooperates with each other and would be and feel as “the main owner” of the company. Our goal is to be the innovative world-known company having the unusual attitude to business what really gives as the biggest amount of energy ever. We would like to be the company, that everyone wants to work in. Thanks to following this path constantly, having this principles we have, creating the “team of dreams” and expanding our knowledge and competences (kaizen), finally thanks to wide research and development background we have, we believe we will become a highly productive team producing reliable and accurate solutions.

Why the Toyota Way?

After World War II, Japanese market was a small one for automobile branch, and Toyota was a small company comparing it with such corporations as GM or Ford which use mass production and economies of scale. According to that we neither would like to be a corporation producing a few solutions in a massive scale, but the company that could matches with the client’s and market’s needs in a dynamic and elastic way. Toyota had to produce different automobiles with using the same production lines, what also fits to the Tide Software’s concept, because we produce software that in a very short time and through an involvement of the same human teams fulfills the requirements of various enterprises.

Our production cycle has couple weeks, not months or even years. In Toyota they developed that thanks to shortening the time of realization of an order and maintaining the elasticity of higher quality, they can increase the client’s satisfaction and business’s productivity and finally they can allocate resources in more effective way. Additionally organizational culture which is based on people and their constant increasing competences is very important for the company.

Toyota core values meet ours.

Challenges and long-term plans

We put the challenge out to IT market by creating innovative solutions for managing business through substantive and technical support. Starting from technology and strategy ending with sales and implementations we face challenge and meet the issue with unusual way. All of our actions are planned several years ahead and they are not focus on spectacular, short-term financial result.

We divided our plans to three key stages:

• Stage I – Complimentary – We produce solutions that support essentially and technically (functionally) managing and automation of businesses’ processes. We are complimentary with the ERP system and focus on processes that are not supported by ERP system at all or the support is not optimally one. We also build the efficient and solid foundation. We are a supplier of the knowledge which appears to be the IT system, but not vice versa.
• Stage II – Duplication – Having really huge knowledge, experience and solid platform supporting many processes at the moment we expand our offer of other elements existing in other systems, especially in ERP systems. At the same time we start to work on advanced components as Artificial Intelligence, while still continuing working on development of the system (its efficiency, quality, new components).
• Stage III – ERP – Having in our offer majority of business systems, we have an innovative solution based not on modular integrated system ERP (classical thinking – so-far solution), but universal and elastic platform integrating various systems and building optional business processes. This stage underlines emphasizes our long-term goal. In the meanwhile we will search changes on the market actively and implement proper changes to the plan.

Kaizen – “Self-learning” organization

We are the company that still expanding competences and know-how. Our people are those who are the foundation and give us energy for action. These people expand their knowledge by attending trainings and special competitions or conferences, achieving subsequent certificates and most of all working directly with our Clients. We as the company reduce to minimum a turnover ratio, what increases a level of experience of our team. Additionally we stack our knowledge into knowledge base and community we participate in actively. “Kaizen” is written into our strategy – what meaning continuous improvement. We are against the idea of “the better is an enemy of the good”. We often check the existing processes and solutions and try to find out if we could improve something due to those solutions and processes act even better. We use our widespread R&D actions. We run common actions with universities and work systematically on optimization of the processes of our company. Our key products are IT solutions that improve business processes, so we have become the first client for ourselves.

Genchi genbutsu– to solve the problem at its source

We analyze each problem deeply at its source. The time, we spent on examining the reason of problem, sometimes including our presence at the place of uprising the problem, returns to us with much more. When we add to that really fast delivery of information to the whole team, we reduce significantly a risk of repeating the mistake. We create a huge of knowledge of base which is distributed internally but also among our Clients and Partners.

Production – “Toyota production system”

The “Toyota production system” is a consequence of strategy – the concept of “Toyota Way”. This is what provides realization of our mission and strategy. The most important areas we move along:

• Production
• Research & Development
• Cooperation with Partners and Suppliers

  “Toyota Production System House”

Production is arranged conceptually as a house, where there are our people and continuous improvement in the center and stabile and reliable processes including heijunka(leveled production) as the foundation of the system. Each component of the system is very important, but more important is how the components reinforce each other.

Two tracks of production: client and R&D

There are really two tracks of production. The first one is the whole system of “lean production” that matches client’s needs, the second one is widespread R&D. Why in this way? It has its source in the key principle – kaizen, what is good today, will be outdated, inefficient and uneconomical tomorrow. That is the reason we focus on R&D.

14 strategic principles

Our company works on 14 strategic key organizational principles that realize the strategy. According to the pyramid concept of the Toyota Way, we divided these principles into 4 parts:

• Long-term conception – (the pyramid’s foundation)
• Processes – proper processes leading to proper results
• People and Partners - enriching the organization with taking care of developing of our people and our Partners
• Solving problems – continuously solving problems as the driving-force of “self-learning” organization

Long-term conception

• Principle 1 – We base our decisions on long-term concept, even when it comes with costs of short-term benefits
• We have really strong sense of purpose that dominates over the short-term decisions. We work, develop ourselves and focus on the common goal which is much more than just earning the money. We try to give everyone his own place in the history of the company and feeling that is a part of a success in bringing-up the company to a new level.
• We are supplier of the high quality for the client which is a reference for any kind of an assessment of each company function accordingly to company’s ability to reach any function.
• We conduct extensive R&D.

Processes

• Principle 2 – We run continuous and fluent process of disclosure issues
• We redesign test processes due to provide continuous flow generating the added value and eliminate places of non-optimal using time and resources ( muda).
• We have built a fast flow of a mistake or problem information ( andon). The information is disclosed, at the time of discovering it, to the right people who are involved into the mistake/problem.
• In the motivation system and evaluation we pay special attention to the issue of disclosure of errors and giving fast information about them.

• Principle 3 – We use the “drawing” system
• The client’s needs and requirements are the initial for production process. We produce what and that much how a client needs. Client’s needs initiate a reverse planning.
• We do not base on forecasting production programs (they just support us), but we constantly follow the market’s needs (Clients’ needs) and we respond to them flexibly.

• Principle 4 – Level out the workload ( heijunka)
• This helps not to overburden people or the equipment thus increases their efficiency and involvement and reduces the failure rate.
• This helps to even production levels (even when it comes with the cost of single efficient components). We follow the value streams optimizing muda.

• Principle 5 – Build a culture of stopping to fix problems
• The foundation of our offer for clients is the quality.
• We use modern available and best practices to assure quality.
• There are special tools built into our processes to detect any of errors (jidoka –automation with a human intelligence).
• We have developed the fast-errors-removing procedures and application of preventive remedies.
• We inculcate principle of stopping or slowdown the work to get quality right the first time and increase a long-term productivity.

• Principle 6 – Standardized tasks.
• Standardized tasks and processes are the foundation for the predictability of the processes.
• We catch up with the best knowledge of the process and standardize it as the best current practices.
• We provide any employee affected by the system for continuous improvement (kaizen).

• Principle 7 – Use visual control so no problems are hidden.
• We often carry out checks the processes run properly (we do not base just on automatization or system/diagram results).
• We carry out cross-checks (meaning we involve employees that have similar qualifications to check their work).
• The “production cycle’s section” is what we conduct - we analyze it, what are the good or bad things, what is to improve and finally what is needed to be changed thoroughly.

• Principle 8 – Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes
• Technology supports our employees, but not takes over.
• We analyze new technologies widely (research & development).
• We reject these technologies that are not adapted to the system, might disturb the stability, reliability and predictability of the system.
• We implement every new technology that is the newest and stable one (after the R&D stage), has availability to improve our processes.

Employees and Partners

• Principle 9 – We raise leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and teach it to others.
  • We raise our own leaders, not gain them from the outside.
  • The leader for us is not a person who has qualifications to manage people. Everyone, who understand the concept of the company and helps it to achieve the success, might become a leader.
  • The good leader fully understands the everyday work and its relating to the principles of the company.

• Principle 10 – We develop exceptional people and teams who follow our company's philosophy.
• We work really hard on propagating organizational company culture.
• Each employee and each team improve their competences and knowledge, that is the foundation of Tide Software – maintain a learning organization.
• We create teams, constantly propagating a “dream team”
• We try to change the tasks for employees, so they could improve their competences on many levels and make them universal.

• Principle 11 – We respect our extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve.
• Our partners and suppliers are the extension of our company, and we treat them this way.
• We challenge our partners to growth constantly, by setting ambitious goals.

Solving problems

• Principle 12 – We go and see ourselves to thoroughly understand the situation (genchi genbutsu)./li>
  • We (each employee and the Board) involve personally in solving problem through gathering and talk the problem over, not just theorizing based on computer’s screen.
  • We think and speak on verified, proven information and data.

• Principle 13 – We make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options; implement decisions rapidly (nemawashi)
• We consider a broad range of alternatives to choose the best one, instead of following just one path.
• We use nemawashi what means we meet together and talk the problem over with the rest of our team, gathering ideas and receiving acceptance for particular solution.
• Principle 14 – We become a learning organization through relentless reflection (hansei) and continuous improvement (kaizen).
• Even when the process is built up and verified, we still analyze and try to improve it.
• We protect the stock of knowledge we have, take care of employment’s stability, reduce to minimum the staff turnovers.
• We use a relentless reflection (hansei). While achieving the following milestones we run a study case with describing all advantages and disadvantages and why and how we achieve the success. Thanks to that we implement the good practices.
• We are still-learning organization through standardization of the best solutions and practices.