The origin of the Toyota Production System

A production system that has been fine-tuned over generations

Roots of the Toyota Production System

The Toyota Production System (TPS), which is steeped in the philosophy of "the complete elimination of all waste" imbues all aspects of production in pursuit of the most efficient methods, tracing back its roots to Sakichi Toyoda's automatic loom. The TPS has evolved through many years of trial and error to improve efficiency based on the Just-in-Time concept developed by Kiichiro Toyoda, the founder (and second president) of Toyota Motor Corporation. Waste can manifest as excess inventory in some cases, extraneous processing steps in other cases, and defective products in yet other cases. All these "waste" elements intertwine with each other to create more waste, eventually impacting the management of the corporation itself. The automatic loom invented by Sakichi Toyoda not only automated work which used to be performed manually but also built the capability to make judgments into the machine itself. By eliminating both defective products and the associated wasteful practices, Sakichi succeeded in tremendously improving both productivity and work efficiency. Kiichiro Toyoda, who inherited this philosophy, set out to realize his belief that "the ideal conditions for making things are created when machines, facilities, and people work together to add value without generating any waste." He conceived methodologies and techniques for eliminating waste between operatio ns, between both lines and processes. The result was the Just-in-Time method. By practicing the philosophies of "Daily Improvements" and "Good Thinking, Good Products, " the TPS has evolved into a world -renowned production system. Furthermore, all Toyota production divisions are making improvements to the TPS day and night to ensure its continued evolution. Recently, the "Toyota spirit of making things" is referred to as the "Toyota Way." It has been adopted not only by companies inside Japan and within the automotive industry, but in production activities worldwide, and continues to evolve globally.

Sakichi Toyoda (1867-1930)

Toyoda Power Loom equipped with a new weft-breakage automatic stopping device (developed in 1896) World's first automatic loom with a non-stop shuttle-change motion, the Type-G Toyoda Automatic Loom (developed in 1924)

Kiichiro Toyoda (1894-1952)

Drawing on his experience of introducing a flow production method using a chain conveyor into the assembly line of a textile plant (completed in 1927) with a monthly production capacity of 300 units, Kiichiro Toyoda also introduced this method into the body production line at Toyota Motor Co., Ltd.'s Koromo Plant (present day Honsha Plant), completed in 1938.

Type-G Automatic Loom assembly line

Toyota Standard Sedan Model AA announced in 1936

Eiji Toyoda (1913-)

By ensuring thorough implementation of jidoka and the Just -in-Time method, Eiji Toyoda increased workers' productivity by adding value and realized the Toyota Production System, which enabled Toyota to compete head-on with companies in Europe and the U.S.

Taiichi Ohno (1912-1990)

With strong backing from Eiji Toyoda, Taiichi Ohno helped establish the Toyota Production System, and built the foundation for the Toyota spirit of "making things" by, for example, creating the basic framework for the Just-in-Time method.

Toyota Production System

A production system which is steeped in the philosophy of "the complete elimination of all waste" imbuing all aspects of production in pursuit of the most efficient methods.
Toyota Motor Corporation's vehicle production system is a way of "making things" that is sometimes referred to as a "lean manufacturing system" or a "Just-in-Time (JIT) system," and has come to be well known and studied worldwide. This production control system has been established based on many years of continuous improvements, with the objective of "making the vehicles ordered by customers in the quickest and most efficient way, in order to deliver the vehicles as quickly as possible." The Toyota Production System (TPS) was established based on two concepts: The first is called "jidoka" (which can be loosely translated as "automation with a human touch") which means that when a problem occurs, the equipment stops immediately, preventing defective products from being produced; The second is the concept of "Just -in-Time," in which each process produces only what is needed by the next process in a continuous flow. Based on the basic philosophies of jidoka and Just -in-Time, the TPS can efficiently and quickly produce vehicles of sound quality, one at a time, that fully satisfy customer requirements.

TPS Concept
Jidoka Highlighting/visualization of problems
-Quality must be built in during the manufacturing process!-

Just-in-Time Productivity improvement

- Making only "what is needed, when it is needed, and in the amount needed!"

If equipment malfunction or a defective part is discovered, the affected machine automatically stops, and operators cease production and correct the problem. For the Just-in-Time system to function, all of the parts that are made and supplied must meet predetermined quality standards. This is achieved through jidoka. 1. Jidoka means that a machine safely stops when the normal processing is completed. It also means that, should a quality / equipment problem arise, the machine detects the problem on its own and stops, preventing defective products from being produced. As a result, only products satisfying quality standards will be passed on to the following processes on the production line. 2. Since a machine automatically stops when processing is completed or when a problem arises and is communicated via the "andon" (problem display board), operators can confidently continue performing work at another machine, as well as easily identify the problem's cause to prevent its recurrence. This means that each operator can be in charge of many machines, resulting in higher productivity, while continuous improvements lead to greater processing capacity.

Producing quality products efficiently through the complete elimination of waste, inconsistencies, and unreasonable requirements on the production line. In order to deliver a vehicle ordered by a customer as quickly as possible, the vehicle is efficiently built within the shortest possible period of time by adhering to the following: 1. When a vehicle order is received, a production instruction must be issued to the beginning of the vehicle production line as soon as possible. 2. The assembly line must be stocked with required number of all needed parts so that any type of ordered vehicle can be assembled. 3. The assembly line must replace the parts used by retrieving the same number of parts from the partsproducing process (the preceding process). 4. The preceding process must be stocked with small numbers of all types of parts and produce only the numbers of parts that were retrieved by an operator from the next process.

Just-in-Time Philosophy of complete elimination of

waste
Just-in-Time
"Just-in-Time" means making "only what is needed, when it is needed, and in the amount needed." For example, to efficiently produce a large number of automobiles, which can consist of around 30,000 parts, it is necessary to create a deta iled production

plan that includes parts procurement. Supplying "what is needed, when it is needed, and in the amount needed" according to this production plan can eliminate waste, inconsistencies, and unreasonable requirements, resulting in improved produ ctivity.

Kanban System
In the TPS (Toyota Production System), a unique production control method called the "kanban system" plays an integral role. The kanban system has also been called the "Supermarket method" because the idea behind it was borrowed from supermarkets. Such mass merchandizing stores use product control cards upon which product -related information, such as a product's name, code and storage location, are entered. Because Toyota employed kanban signs for use in their production processes, the method came to be called the "kanban system." At Toyota, when a process refers to a preceding process to retrieve parts, it uses a kanban to communicate which parts have been used. Evolution of the kanban through daily improvements

Through continuous technological improvements, the kanban system has evolved into the "e-kanban," which is managed using IT methodologies and has increased productivity even further.

- Why use a supermarket concept? A supermarket stocks the items needed by its customers when they are needed in the quantity needed, and has all of these items available for sale at any given time. Taiichi Ohno (a former Toyota vice president), wh o promoted the idea of Just-in-Time, applied this concept, equating the supermarket and the customer with the preceding process and the next process, respectively. By having the next process (the customer) go to the preceding process (the supermarket) to retrieve the necessary parts when they are needed and in the amount needed, it was possible to improve upon the existing inefficient production system. No longer were the preceding processes making excess parts and delivering them to the next process.

Two kinds of kanban (the production instruction kanban and the parts retrieval kanban) are used for managing parts.

Jidoka Manufacturing high-quality products

Automation with a human touch
The term jidoka used in the TPS (Toyota Production System) can be defined as "automation with a human touch." The word jidoka traces its roots to the invention of the automatic loom by Sakichi Toyoda, Founder of the Toyota Group. The automatic loom is a machine that spins thread for cloth and weaves textiles automatically. Before automated devices were commonplace, back-strap looms, ground looms, and high-warp looms were used to manually weave cloth. In 1896, Sakichi Toyoda invented Japan's first self-powered loom called the "Toyoda Power Loom." Subsequently, he incorporated numerous revolutionary inventions into his looms, including the weft breakage automatic stopping device (which automatically stopped the loom when a thread breakage was detected), the warp supply device and the automatic shuttle changer. Then, in 1924, Sakichi invented the world's first automatic loom, called the "Type-G Toyoda Automatic Loom (with non -stop shuttle-change motion)" which could change shuttles without stopping operation. The Toyota term "jido" is applied to a machine with a built -in device for making judgments, whereas the regular Japanese term "jido" (automation) is simply applied to a machine that moves on its own. Jidoka refers to "automation with a human touch," as opposed to a machine that simply moves under the monitoring and supervision of an operator.

Since the loom stopped when a problem arose, no defective products were produced. This meant that a single operator could be put in charge of numerous looms, resulting in a tremendous improvement in productivity. Type-G Toyoda Automatic Loom, the origin of jidoka

The Type-G Toyoda Automatic Loom, the world's first automatic loom with a non-stop shuttle-change motion, was invented by Sakichi Toyoda in 1924. This loom automatically stopped when it detected a problem such as thread breakage.

Concept of jidoka

Jidoka and Visual Control

Since equipment stops when a problem arises, a single operator can visually monitor and efficiently control many machines. As an important tool for this "visual control" or "problem visualization," Toyota plants use a problem display board system called "andon" that allows operators to identify problems in the production line with only a glance. Visual Control using Andon

An operator communicating an abnormality

An andon problem display board that communicates abnormalities