Frank Voss says one challenge is 'how do we make the best use of digital data?'
As organizations in high‑hazard sectors look ahead to 2026, Toyota executive Frank Voss says the coming year offers a critical opportunity to re‑examine how work is designed, how technology is used, and how employers think about worker happiness and retention.
Voss, a recent recipient of the CSEA CEO of the Year award, and a group vice president for truck manufacturing in North America, is applying those ideas as he helps launch a new production process at a Texas facility. He described the start‑up as “a great opportunity for me to apply these technologies and techniques” so the new building can become one of Toyota’s safest and most capable operations in the region.
Designing work for “any member, any process”
A major focus for 2026, Voss said, is making sure jobs are designed so a wide range of people can perform them safely. Internally, this is captured in the phrase “any member, any process,” an effort to ensure that tasks can be done by workers with different heights, reaches and physical capabilities.
He pointed to mismatches between people and tasks—such as short workers assigned to overhead work—as a preventable source of strain and injury. Rather than expecting individuals to adapt, he said employers should be prepared to adjust roles and layouts.
“You can also try and do some job fit and make sure the right person is in the right type of work,” Voss noted, describing it as one part of broader efforts to align processes with the people who run them.
That design lens, he added, extends to engineering standards and new capital projects, where decisions about reach, posture and work envelopes can determine how inclusive and sustainable a process will be over time.
Safety, happiness and competition for talent
Looking at the broader environment, Voss linked safety and work design to the challenge of retaining and attracting employees after a period of significant turnover and cost pressure.
For Toyota, he said, that means paying attention to how it feels to come to work each day, not just to injury statistics.
He described the goal from a worker’s perspective as: “My company is looking out for me. I’m part of something bigger than just a job.”
Voss argued that this experience is inseparable from safety. If people do not feel protected, he suggested, other aspects of the employment offer quickly lose relevance.
In his view, safety is one element in a wider system of outcomes rather than a standalone program. “Safety isn’t just by itself, it’s part of a bigger way of thinking and it’s part of a bigger system,” he said.
He linked that system to morale and performance over time: “These things all come together,” Voss added, pointing to the connections between worker happiness, product quality and productivity.
Using digital tools to predict rather than react
Voss also expects digital technology to play an increasingly important role in how organizations manage safety in 2026, particularly by allowing leaders to anticipate problems earlier.
“Digital transformation, that’s a journey that the entire company is on,” he said. “How do we make the best use of digital data to be more proactive?”
“We want the technology to give us more information about our process so we can predict potential failures,” he added, describing a shift from reactive analysis toward prediction and prevention.
One area of focus is the use of Digital Twin concepts, which create a virtual representation of production systems. “Digital twin is a concept,” Voss said, explaining it as “trying to create a digital version of what you have in production.”
By modelling processes this way, he said, companies can identify interferences and concerns early and resolve them before committing capital.
Voss noted that Toyota is working with “some large companies and… some smaller partners too” to support this digital work, reflecting a mix of established and niche providers in the safety‑technology space.
As organizations finalize their safety priorities for 2026, his comments point to three areas of emphasis: designing work so more people can do it safely, treating safety and happiness as part of the same system, and using digital tools not just to record what went wrong, but to predict and prevent what could go wrong next.
