Without standardized work, there can be no consistent quality. When every employee performs a task differently, identifying the source of errors becomes difficult or even impossible. Even when a leader conducts a Gemba walk on the shop floor, the observation has little value if there is no standard to compare against.

In the traditional management approach—following Taylor's principles—industrial engineers were solely responsible for designing, modifying, and improving processes, while workers were expected to simply follow instructions. Standard work was often misused as a tool to measure employee performance, which contradicts the principle of respect for people, a cornerstone of the Toyota Production System.

Toyota's strength lies in its people, not just its processes. Standardized work at Toyota is designed to eliminate waste, develop employee skills, and build deep organizational knowledge. It empowers employees to improve processes, fosters continuous learning, and creates a foundation for high performance across the organization.