There are a lot of books that you can read to get insight to some of the best lean thinkers. It is fortunate that the science/art is relatively new and most of these minds are still alive. There are a couple of pioneering minds of the practice that are not with us so it is fortunate that their thoughts and philosophies are documented. Today, I thought I’d simply post for discussions some of my favourite quotes from the book Toyota Production System: Beyond Large Scale Production. This is an English translation of Taichi Ohno’s thoughts which I read a couple of years back. I hope that these quotations can serve as a basis for discussion for anybody who reads this. I documented these as I read the book and make no claim to this content. I put this information here for the purpose of generating discussion for the organization and anybody who reads this. If anybody from the copyright holder happens to read this please do contact me at rhenderson@leancanada.org to discuss. Rest assured as I post this that I will be in contact to request permission to share these quotes.
Ohno, Taiichi (1988), Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production, Productivity Press, ISBN 0-915299-14-3
- “Correct a mistake immediately – to rush and not take time to correct a problem causes work loss later.”
- “In any manufacturing situation, we frequently see people working ahead. Instead of waiting, the worker works on the next job, so the waiting is hidden. If this situation is repeated, inventory begins to accumulate at the end of a production line or between lines. This inventory has to be moved or neatly stacked. If these movements are regarded as work, soon we will be unable to tell waste from work.”
- “The world has already changed from a time when industry could sell everything it produced in an affluent society were material needs are routinely met. Social values have changed. We are now unable to sell our products unless we think ourselves into the very heart of our customers, each of whom has different concepts and tastes.”
- “Today the industrial world has been forced to master in earnest multikind small quantity production system.”
- “All kinds of wastes occur when we try to produce same product in large homogeneous quantities. In the end, costs rise. It is much more economical to make each item one at a time.”
- “Prevention is better than healing.”
- “There is no waste in business more terrible than overproduction.”
- “Industrial society must develop the courage, or rather the common sense, to procure only what is needed when it is needed and in the amount needed.”
- “Holding a large inventory causes the waste of overproduction. It also leads to an inventory of defectives, which is a serious business loss.”
- “…of increasing importance are efforts to put together specialized, yet versatile production processes through the use of machines and jigs that can handle minimal quantities of materials.”
- “If one sticks to the idea of that, once said, all plans should not be changed, a business can’t exist for long.”
- “Increasing speed in the name of productivity improvement alone or forcing high speeds on a machine that cannot endure them merely to avoid in a drop in production may seem to benefit production. However, these actions usually hinder production. Production managers and supervisors as well as other managers must understand this.”
- “A machine, lacking human qualities, is discarded after giving long service. I want to advocate that, like workers, machines that give a long service should be used with great, great care.”
- “How, then, should we decide whether or not to replace an old machine? My conclusion is that if adequate maintenance has been done, replacement with the new machine is never cheap or, even if maintaining the older ones entails some expense.”
- “First, work and equipment improvement should be considered. Work improvement alone should contribute half or 1/3 of the total cost reduction. Next, autonomation, or equipment improvement, should be considered. I repeat that we should be careful not to reverse work improvement and equipment improvement. If equipment improvement is done first, costs only go up – not down.”
- “If a worker is alone, there can be no teamwork.”
- “Even if there is only enough work for one person, five or six workers should be grouped together to work as a team. By providing an environment sensitive to human needs, it becomes possible to realistically implement a system that employs fewer workers.”
- “No goal, regardless how small, can be accomplished without adequate training.”