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430 Part Three Planning and control
Operations in practice Toyota
Seen as the leading practitioner and the main originator
of the lean approach, the Toyota Motor Company
has progressively synchronized all its processes
simultaneously to give high-quality, fast throughput and
exceptional productivity. It has done this by developing
a set of practices that has largely shaped what we
now call ‘lean’ or ‘just-in-time’ but which Toyota calls
Source: Corbis/Denis Balihouse
the Toyota Production System (TPS). The TPS has
two themes, ‘just-in-time’ and ‘jidoka’. Just-in-time
is defined as the rapid and coordinated movement of
parts throughout the production system and supply
network to meet customer demand. It is operationalized
by means of heijunka (levelling and smoothing the flow
of items), kanban (signalling to the preceding process
that more parts are needed) and nagare (laying out
to lean synchronization. This is what some have called
processes to achieve smoother flow of parts throughout
the apparent paradox of the Toyota production system:
the production process). Jidoka is described as
‘namely, that activities, connections and production
‘humanizing the interface between operator and
flows in a Toyota factory are rigidly scripted, yet at the
machine’. Toyota’s philosophy is that the machine is
same time Toyota’s operations are enormously flexible
there to serve the operator’s purpose. The operator
and adaptable. Activities and processes are constantly
should be left free to exercise his or her judgement.
being challenged and pushed to a higher level of
Jidoka is operationalized by means of fail-safeing (or
performance, enabling the company to continually
machine jidoka), line-stop authority (or human jidoka)
innovate and improve.’
and visual control (at-a-glance status of production
One influential study of Toyota identified four rules that
processes and visibility of process standards).
guide the design, delivery, and development activities
Toyota believes that both just-in-time and jidoka
within the company.1
should be applied ruthlessly to the elimination of waste,
where waste is defined as ‘anything other than the ● Rule one – all work shall be highly specified as to
minimum amount of equipment, items, parts and content, sequence, timing, and outcome.
workers that are absolutely essential to production’. ● Rule two – every customer–supplier connection must
Fujio Cho of Toyota identified seven types of waste be direct and there must be an unambiguous yes
that must be eliminated from all operations processes. or no method of sending requests and receiving
They are: waste from over-production, waste from responses.
waiting time, transportation waste, inventory waste, ● Rule three – the route for every product and service
processing waste, waste of motion and waste from must be simple and direct.
product defects. Beyond this, authorities on Toyota claim ● Rule four – any improvement must be made in
that its strength lies in understanding the differences accordance with the scientific method, under the
between the tools and practices used with Toyota guidance of a teacher, and at the lowest possible
operations and the overall philosophy of their approach level in the organization.
