Lessons from the Toyota Production System

摘要

Arguably, one of the most profound evolutions in supply chain and operations management history has been the foundation of the Toyota Production System (TPS). What started as a simple edict to eliminate waste morphed first into a Just-in-Time philosophy and, later, lean manufacturing. Today it's with lean principles as a foundation that almost everyone in operations management is introduced to the five whys, five Ss, total productive maintenance, kaizen events, and jidoka. These process improvement tools have become the basis for many businesses trying to heighten their operations. However, as so many of us know, these efforts quite often end in failure.