For about 50 years, many people have been very fond of Toyota’s management system, the Toyota Production System (inclusive of The Toyota Way). Yet for all of the love of this truly innovative system of management, there is surprisingly little evidence of true Just-in-Time production, jidoka, the daily practice of kaizen, “respect for people” and other hallmarks of Toyota’s management system.
People eagerly read all they can about the Toyota Production System and The Toyota Way, yet they end up doing Lean instead, which is not nearly the same thing as TPS. It’s strange, isn’t it? It seems that public expression of love for TPS masks a private opinion that hopefully someone else will do it. In the meantime, it seems that for most, “Lean is the best we can do.”
