What is Lean Production?

The more lean and more understandable the definition of lean production, the better it is. There are hundreds of different definitions which look alike in thousands of sources. I will use own definition on Toyota’s global website: “A production system based on the philosophy of achieving the complete elimination of all waste in pursuit of the most efficient methods.” The father of lean production, Taiichi Ohno has also a short and good definition in Toyota Production System book: “The main idea of Toyota Production System is “elimination of all wastes”.” The all used terms and lean tools serve to this goal.

What is Waste?

What is meant by the word “waste”, which is the main word in both definitions, is everything that the customer does not want to pay for, regardless of whether it is a product or a service. For example, the customer wants to pay for colour of car but s/he doesn’t want to pay extra money for that the car is produced in Japan and is brought to Turkey by ships. S/he prefers to cheaper one of same car which is produced in Turkey or is brought from closer factories.

There are 7 main wastes in Toyota Production System. These are overproduction, inventory, overprocessing, defects, waiting, motion, and transportation wastes. I will explain the wastes in detail in a different writing.  

Are Lean Production and Toyota Production System(TPS) the Same Thing?

All world use the word lean to express Toyota Production System. Lean production or lean thinking terms are actually interpreted versions of TPS.

The word “lean production” is used firstly in a writing which is published at MIT by John Krafcik in 1988. The general principles of lean production is explained in The Machine That Changed the World book which is written by James P. Womack, Daniel Roos, and Daniel T. Jones in 1991. Well-known 5 main principles of lean production is explained in Lean Thinking book which is written from James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones in 1996. A classification about 5 main principles of lean production is not exist in TPS. It is firstly used in Lean Thinking book and after it has been known as 5 main principles of lean production. The word lean was popularized after that years.

When and How was Lean Production Born?

The start of lean production is in 1948. All production system was not created suddenly. Pull system and just in time system were started to use in factories and it had been a production and management system with proven methods over the years. Knowing the story of why it emerged in 1948 will make your view to lean production more meaningful.

Toyota Motor Company which is a Japanese company was established in 1937. Japan was defeated in World War II that lasted 1939-1945. Surviving without wasting any resources, producing, and if it is possible making profit was a miracle in such a bad period. Therefore, there is the principle of eliminating all wastes in the basis of lean production. Toyota needed eliminating wastes more than all opponents. Toyota started to get successful results day by day and continued to develop their production system. They were still behind the world’s big automobile manufacturers and anyone didn’t wonder their production system.

An oil crisis which affected all world and caused to regress of most countries and sectors broke out in the last months of 1973. Toyota maintained its position as profit in 1974 when the world was in trouble and started to increase its profit from 1975. Toyota which glared in international economy started to arouse curiosity. Their production system started to be investigated and popularized after that day. TPS began to be tried slowly in the abroad. It happened a system which is implemented in all sectors and especially in automobile sector.