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Table of Contents
Introduction/Executive Summary ................................................................................................ 2 Birth of Lean Production System ................................................................................................ 2 Impact on Manufacturing ............................................................................................................ 2 Impact on Supply Chain Management ......................................................................................... 3 Lean Production System and Competitiveness ............................................................................ 3 Pitfalls of Lean Production System ............................................................................................. 4 Expansion of Toyota ................................................................................................................... 4 Consequences of Rapid Growth .................................................................................................. 4 Recommendations for Toyota and Other Companies ................................................................... 5 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 5 References .................................................................................................................................. 6 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 7
Introduction/Executive Summary
The automobile industry went through many changes in the way it handled the manufacturing process and the corporate management. The automobile industry went through various production systems such as craft production system, mass production system and lean production system. Each system had a huge impact on the growth of the automobile industry. However, the lean production system revolutionized the concept of production and supply chain management. It helped the automobile industry to achieve high standards of manufacturing and management. In this writing, I attempt to find out the underlying concepts of the lean production system, its impact on manufacturing and supply chain management; and how it affected the competitiveness and rapid growth of Toyota.
Impact on Manufacturing
To understand how the lean manufacturing system influenced the manufacturing process across all companies, it is important to analyze the manufacturing systems that preceded the lean production system. During the beginning of the 1990s automobile companies used the craft production system in which one car at a time was manufactured. There was no scientific management of the manufacturing process and the production was not in relation with the demand. The mass production system followed the craft production system. The mass production
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system introduced by Ford aimed to manufacture cars in mass numbers by using the division of labor. This system used a large inventory and created lots of material waste. The quality of the cars was very low. Lean production system developed by Toyota, which followed the mass production system of Ford, aims at improving the manufacturing process to achieve the optimum productivity with highest quality. The lean production system gave much emphasis on the quality assurance of the cars being manufactured. The pull system of the lean production allowed the employees to stop the operation when they spot a quality issue in the manufacturing. This helped Toyota to prevent the faults before it reaches the customers. When Toyotas rivals Ford and General Motors were following a bureaucratic management set up, Toyotas lean production advocated a management philosophy where the employees opinions were taken into account. This allowed Toyota to continuously improve the manufacturing process. The Total Quality Management system, which is an integral part of lean production system, ensured that all the components and products manufactured in Toyota meet the highest quality standards.
high quality assurance. These practices enabled Toyota to take advantage of the oil embargo of 1977 and produce fuel efficient small cars. This provided Toyota an easy access to the US and the European market.
Expansion of Toyota
It is very obvious that the growth and success of Toyota can be attributed to the development and implementation of the lean production system in Toyota. The lean production system helped Toyota to overcome its disadvantages in the production of the automobiles. When the global automobile market was dominated by automobile giants such as Ford and General Motors, Toyota was struggling to survive in the market. The growth of Toyota in the initial years of its entry into the global market was directed by the core principles of the lean production system adding value to the customer. By focusing on waste reduction, lean inventory, just in time supply chain, and total quality management, Toyota steadily captured the global automobile market. Its growth was such that the rival companies, such as Ford, also started to implement the lean production system (Jeffrey K. Liker, 2004). From their small capacity of manufacturing only hundreds of cares in 1937, Toyota became the largest automobile manufacturer in the world with a capacity of manufacturing 7.5 million cars per year. In 2008, Toyota achieved a milestone by surpassing the General Motors in terms of sales and production. Currently, Toyota has its business presence in more than 140 countries.
suppliers, such as CTS Corp. who supplied faulty components. For the sake of mindless expansion, Toyota over stretched the lean production system to a point till the whole system broke down causing massive recalls of faulty cars. Now, Toyota is facing Congressional inquiries into its mismanagement of the production procedure and for resulting accidents in the US.
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Conclusion
The lean production system in its true sense is designed to achieve high customer satisfaction through high quality products and services. However, when the lean production system is over stretched to achieve the narrow goals of the companies, the system produces opposite results as evident from the case of Toyota.
References
y Art Smalley (2004), Creating level pull: a lean production-system improvement guide for production control, operations, and engineering professionals, 1st Edition, Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc. Xiaohua Yang (1995), Globalization of the automobile industry, 1st Edition, Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
David Mann (2005), Creating a lean culture: tools to sustain lean conversions, 1st Edition, Productivity Press David John Lu, Nihon Nritsu Kykai (1989), Kanban just-in-time at Toyota: management begins at the workplace, 2nd Edition,Productivity Press Stephen A. Ruffa (2008), Going lean: how the best companies apply lean manufacturing principles to shatter Uncertainty, drive innovation, and maximize profits, 1st Edition, Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Joel D. Wisner, Keah-Choon Tan, G. Keong Leong (2009), Principles of Supply Chain Management, 2nd Edition, South-Western Cengage Learning. John R. Black (2008), Lean production: implementing a world-class system, 1st Edition, Industrial Press, inc. James William Martin (2007), Lean six sigma for supply chain management: the 10-step solution process, 1st Editoin, McGrow-Hill Womack, James P. and Jones, Daniel T. (2003), Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Revised and Updated, HarperBusiness James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones, Daniel Roos (1990), The machine that changed the world, 1st Edition, McGraw-Hill
Bibliography
y Cusumano, Michael A., The Limits of Lean, Sloan Management Review, Summer 1994. Mentzer, J.T. et al. (2001): Defining Supply Chain Management, in: Journal of Business Logistics, Vol. 22, No. 2, 2001 Spear, Steven, and Bowen, H. Kent (1999), "Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System," Harvard Business Review Ford, Henry; with Crowther, Samuel (1922), My Life and Work, Garden City, New York, USA, 1st Edition, Garden City Publishing Company, Inc Georgano, G. N. (1985), Cars: Early and Vintage, 18861930,1st Edition, GrangeUniversal.