There is rather large group of people, especially on the internet, who seize every opportunity to declare that Lean manufacturing now really is outdated. Because Toyota is the textbook example of Lean, this company is invariably their target.

About 1,5 year ago, there was much noise around the recall of millions of cars. Articles appeared with titles like ‘Toyota Production System of its stroke.’ You could say that there was a small element of truth in that. However, the blogs I read after the earthquake in Japan where really over the line. Toyota would have been hit extra hard by this natural disaster, because of their low inventory. Conclusion: Lean is no good.   

Grasping natural disasters to discredit companies is in my opinion condemnable anyway, but besides that, the reasoning in those blogs is wrong. After all, how should a company prepare itself for the possibility of an earthquake of 8,9 on the Richter scale, or a simular catastrophy?  When you have suppliers near the sea, this would mean that you should built up inventory as a safeguard against a possible flooding, even if the dikes are strong.  Is this what you will propose in the next management meeting?

       ^ Early example of lean manufacturing (1). Integrated and flowing assembly at Ford in 1913
          (source: Ford)

Recalls
Regarding the recalls mentioned above, Toyota learned a lesson. Their principle of self-reflection – when a problem arises: stop, think and improve – must be extended to the customer. The possibilities of fast feedback by the end-users are now being improved. The famous Andon-system of Toyota, which gives operators the possibility to stop the production if they think there might be a quality problem, is more or less extended to the customer.
Doing this will not be easy, since consumers think differently then operators. Emotions, highly influenced by the media, play an important role. And what an employee of Toyota never does – jump to conclusions – those media do. This was also an important lesson learned by the car manufacturer. However, it is clear that the Toyota Production System (TPS) still stands up.

State-of-the-art 
There was another thing which caught my eye during the last year. Some consultants proved to fight tooth and nail to defend the TPS. It seemed they linked the justification of their entire consultancy practice with the survival of Toyota.

Is it really necessary that Toyota remains flourishing, when you are and want to stay a Lean consultant?  No.  Even if Toyota fails completely, this does not mean that Lean manufacturing comes to an end. Why? Because Lean is no more or less than a catch-all term, describing what we – at this moment – think is the optimal way to deliver good quality products on time, and at the lowest possible cost. The description of what Lean is and how it should be applied has evolved over time and will continue to do so. Fact is, that what we call Lean was adapted over time to cope with changing market conditions.

Lean can be seen as a logistic science, which grows but cannot be completely falsified. Until recently, most research focused on the technical side of Lean, the application of tools like value stream mapping and 5S. Now, the attention for what you can call the people part or the organizational or management side is increasing. I will return to that later.

Sixteenth century
During the development of what we call Lean today (and possibly different later!), time after time different companies took the lead. One of the first insights was, that it is the output towards the consumer that matters in manufacturing. To increase that, you should produce in flow. 

Undoubtedly, the ancient Romans and Greeks must have developed smart production methods.  However, the oldest documented case of flow production is the – literally! – streaming assembly of warships in Venice. First, the hull of such a ship was built. After this, the hull was sailed along several standardized assembly stations. At the peak of the production  there were 16.000  people working in the shipyard and a new ship was finished every day. In large, this explains the power of the small Venice in those days.

       ^ Early example of lean manufacturing (2). Moving – rolling -  assembly of the T-Ford in 1924
          (source: Ford)

Ford
In the beginning of the twentieth century, the baton in developing lean was taken over by Henry Ford. In 1914 he invented the first moving assembly line. After a while, this line could convert rough iron into a T-Ford in the even today amazing time of only 33 hours!
 
How far Henry Ford pushed the idea of flow production, is demonstrated by a factory with multiple floors. The idea was that materials would flow top-down from floor to floor, and finally reach the end-product on the ground. Though this intriguing factory was built, production in it never took place.

Toyota
The development of the now famous Toyota Production System (TPS) began around 1950. The most important contribution to Lean as a science was that Toyota adapted Ford’s streaming production. As a result, it became possible to make multiple types of cars with one assembly line.  To realize that all existing logistic knowledge was used and combined. One building block was the Training Within Industry (TWI) program. TWI was developed during WOII in American factories. The goal was to quickly train new workers, as a replacement for employees who had left as soldiers. TWI introduced for the first time a scientific approach to process improvement. Today, this approach is known as PDCA, or plan-do-check-act.

Many more things where integrated and reused in the TPS, among others the taktzeit. This concept was introduced in the thirties, in the German aircraft industry. The taktzeit determined the rhythm in which airplanes had to be passed on to the next workstation, with the aim to create a smooth production flow.   

The examples above show that the roots of Lean manufacturing are not typical ‘Toyotan’ or Japanese. In addition, they demonstrate that Lean is not something static, but a product of an ongoing evolution. Therefore it is possible and even likely that in time not Toyota but another company will be mentioned as shining example of Lean!

      ^ Modern example of lean manufacturing (1). Production at Toyota (source: Toyota)

Reducing waste
While Lean itself continues to evolve, also our thoughts of what exactly is the core of it will keep changing.

In the eighties, the American scientists Womack and Jones introduced the term ‘lean manufacturing’ to describe the way in which Toyota had adapted the flow production of Ford.

Lean literally means production with as little resources as possible, thus with few inventory and waste. Although Womack and Jones also stressed the importance of creating flow, from that moment on Lean was often defined as a method aimed at reducing waste and idle time.

Womack and Jones mentioned seven sorts of waste, to be eliminated as much as possible: 

• Overproduction (making products which aren’t ordered yet, or making products with features customers didn’t ask for)
• Inventory
• Manufacturing errors (leading to rework)
• Manufacturing disruptions (leading to flow disruption)
• Waiting
• Transport (moving materials unnecessary, or people walking more than needed)
• Searching (for example for materials or work instructions)

Maximizing value stream
What is often forgotten, is that eliminating waste is not the ultimate goal of Lean. The real goal stays to maximize the value which streams towards the customers! Modern definitions of Lean, as in the article Standing on the shoulders of Giants of Eliyahu Goldratt, point back to the roots of Lean in Venice and the old factories of Ford...

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