Toyota Production System
Toyota realized that they could not follow the same manufacturing technique as American manufacturing because of the their relatively low space, resources, and demand. At the time the American auto manufacturers used the traditional way such as to make a batch of certain products (Beasley, J. E., n.d.). To do this they ordered enough parts to complete the batch, so they have to stock or store the materials. So Ohno came up with a system that would better fit Japan's capabilities. The whole system is based on the elimination of waste principle. Time, resources, and materials were all areas where waste could be found according to Ohno. The following are more specific areas that could be corrected to improve efficiency:
"overproduction - waste from producing more than is needed
time spent waiting - waste such as that associated with a worker being idle whilst waiting for another worker to pass him an item he needs (e.g. such as may occur in a sequential line production process)
transportation/movement - waste such as that associated with transporting/moving items around a factory
processing time - waste such as that associated with spending more time than is necessary processing an item on a machine
inventory - waste associated with keeping stocks
defects - waste associated with defective items"(Beasley, J. E., n.d.)
Ohno discovered two ways to reduce waste, just-in-time and autonomation. The theory of just-in-time is the basic principle for the majority of his manufacturing system (Beasley, J. E., n.d.). Stock is seen as unnecessary and a waste using this method. Ma ...