Fixing Toyota
Quality Is Hard—Lean is Much Harder
Richard J. Schonberger
In the general and business press, Toyota’s quality issues are just that: quality issues. The industrial community wonders if there might be more to it: whether Toyota’s namesake production system (TPS), also called lean manufacturing or just-in-time (JIT) production, has been sullied. To see why this is a concern, consider the primary objective of the TPS/lean/JIT.
Stated succinctly, TPS’ primary objective is to synchronize productive operations, supplier deliveries, and final distribution to external usage or demand. Anything in the way of that synchronization, anything in the process that slows or disrupts the flow, must be reduced or eliminated. These interferences include ...
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