4/29/2019 A Brief History of Lean Manufacturing

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A History of Lean Manufacturing

A Brief History of (Just-In-) Time Toyota Production System

Lean Manufacturing is not especially new. It The Allied victory and the massive quantities of material behind it (see
derives from the Toyota Production System or Just "A Bomber An Hour") caught the attention of Japanese industrialists.
In Time Production, Henry Ford and other They studied American production methods with particular attention to
predecessors. Ford practices and the Statistical Quality Control practices of Ishikawa,
Edwards Deming, and Joseph Juran.
The lineage of Lean manufacturing and Just In
Time (JIT) Production goes back to Eli Whitney At Toyota Motor Company, Taichii Ohno and
and the concept of interchangeable parts. This Shigeo Shingo, began to incorporate Ford
article traces the high points of that long history. Eli Whitney
production and other techniques into an
Originator of approach called Toyota Production System or
Early Developments interchangeable parts. Just In Time . They recognized the central role
of inventory.
Eli Whitney is most famous as the inventor of the cotton gin. However, the
gin was a minor accomplishment compared to his perfection of The Toyota people also recognized that the
interchangeable parts. Whitney developed this about 1799 when he took a Ford system had contradictions and Taiichi Ohno
contract from the U.S. Army for the manufacture of 10,000 muskets at the shortcomings, particularly with respect to One of the originators of
unbelievably low price of $13.40 each. employees. With General Douglas MacAurthur the Toyota Production
System.
actively promoting labor unions in the
For the next 100 years manufacturers primarily occupation years, Ford's harsh attitudes and demeaning job structures
concerned themselves with individual were unworkable in post-war Japan. They were also unworkable in the
technologies. During this time our system of American context, but that would not be evident for some years.
engineering drawings developed, modern America's "Greatest Generation" carried over attitudes from the Great
machine tools were perfected and large scale Depression that made the system work in spite of its defects.
processes such as the Bessemer process for
making steel held the center of attention. Toyota soon discovered that factory workers had far more to contribute
than just muscle power. This discovery probably originated in the
As products moved from one discrete process to Quality Circle movement. Ishikawa, Deming, and Juran all made major
the next through the logistics system and within Frederick W. Taylor contributions to the quality movement. It culminated in team
factories, few people concerned themselves with: Originator of Scientific development and cellular manufacturing.
Management.
What happened between processes Another key discovery involved product variety.
How multiple processes were arranged within the factory The Ford system was built around a single,
How the chain of processes functioned as a system. never changing product. It did not cope well
with multiple or new products.
How each worker went about a task
Shingo, at Ohno's suggestion, went to work on
This changed in the late 1890's with the work of the setup and changeover problem. Reducing Shigeo Shingo
early Industrial Engineers. Pioneer of TPS &
setups to minutes and seconds allowed small Industrial Engineer
Frederick W. Taylor began to look at individual batches and an almost continuous flow like the extraordinaire.
workers and work methods. The result was Time original Ford concept. It introduced a flexibility
Study and standardized work. He called his ideas that Henry Ford thought he did not need.
Scientific Management. Taylor was a All of this took place between about 1949 and 1975. To some extent it
controversial figure. The concept of applying spread to other Japanese companies. When the productivity and
science to management was sound but Taylor quality gains became evident to the outside world, American
simply ignored the behavioral sciences. In Frank & Lillian executives traveled to Japan to study it.
addition, he had a peculiar attitude towards factory Gilbreth
workers. Industrial engineers and They brought back, mostly, the superficial aspects like kanban cards
inventors of Process
Charting.
and quality circles. Most early attempts to emulate Toyota failed
Frank Gilbreth (Cheaper By The Dozen) added because they were not integrated into a complete system and because
Motion Study and invented Process Charting. few understood the underlying principles.
Process charts focused attention on all work elements including those
non-value added elements which normally occur between the "official" Norman Bodek first published the works of Shingo and Ohno in
elements. English. He did much to transfer this knowledge and build awareness
in the Western world. Robert Hall and Richard Schonberger also wrote
Lillian Gilbreth brought psychology into the mix by studying the popular books.
motivations of workers and how attitudes affected the outcome of a
process. There were, of course, many other contributors. These were the World Class Manufacturing
people who originated the idea of "eliminating waste", a key tenet of JIT
and Lean Manufacturing. By the 1980's some American manufacturers, such as Omark
Industries, General Electric and Kawasaki (Lincoln, Nebraska) were
The Ford System achieving success.
And then, there was Henry Ford. Starting about Consultants took up the campaign and
1910, Ford and his right-hand-man, Charles E. acronyms sprouted like weeds: World
Sorensen, fashioned the first comprehensive Class Manufacturing (WCM),
Manufacturing Strategy. They took all the Stockless Production, Continuous
elements of a manufacturing system-- people, Flow Manufacturing (CFM), and many
machines, tooling, and products-- and arranged other names all referred to systems
them in a continuous system for manufacturing that were, essentially, Toyota
the Model T automobile. Ford was so incredibly Production. Gradually, a knowledge
successful he quickly became one of the world's and experience base developed and
richest men and put the world on wheels. Ford is success stories became more
considered by many to be the first practitioner of Henry Ford
frequent.
Just In Time and Lean Manufacturing. John Krafcik
Lean Manufacturing
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4/29/2019 A Brief History of Lean Manufacturing
Ford's success inspired many others to copy his methods. But most of The Machine That Changed The Former collaborator of James
those who copied did not understand the fundamentals. Ford assembly World. Womack's book was a Womack and reputed originator of
the term "Lean Manufacturing."
lines were often employed for products and processes that were straightforward account of the history
unsuitable for them. of automobile manufacturing combined with a comparative study of
Japanese, American, and European automotive assembly plants. What
It is even doubtful that Henry Ford himself fully understood what he had was new was a phrase-- "Lean Manufacturing."
done and why it was so successful. When the world began to change, the
Ford system began to break down and Henry Ford refused to change the Lean Manufacturing caught the imagination of manufacturing people in
system. many countries. Lean implementations are now commonplace. The
knowledge and experience base is expanding rapidly.
For example, Ford production depended on a labor force that was so
desperate for money and jobs that workers would sacrifice their dignity The essential elements of Lean
and self esteem. (See Maslow & Motivation) The prosperity of the 1920's Manufacturing are described at our page
and the advent of labor unions produced conflict with the Ford "Principles of Lean Manufacturing." They do
system. Product proliferation also put strains on the Ford system. Annual not substantially differ from the techniques
model changes, multiple colors, and options did not fit well in Ford developed by Ohno, Shingo and the people
factories. at Toyota. The application in any specific
factory does change. Just as many firms
At General Motors, Alfred P. Sloan took a more copied Ford techniques in slavish and
pragmatic approach. He developed business and unthinking ways, many firms copy Toyota's
manufacturing strategies for managing very large techniques in slavish and unthinking ways
enterprises and dealing with variety. By the mid 1930's and with poor results. Our series of articles
General Motors had passed Ford in domination of the on implementation includes a "Mental Lean Manufacturing
automotive market. Yet, many elements of Ford Model" to assist the thinking process and Timeline
production were sound, even in the new age. Ford methods were a guidance on strategy and planning. Click To Enlarge
deciding factor in the Allied victory of World War II.
There is no cookbook for manufacturing. Each firm has its own unique
Ironically, Henry Ford hated war and refused to build armaments long after set of products, processes, people, and history. While certain principles
war was inevitable. However, when Ford plants finally retooled for war may be immutable, their application is not. Manufacturing Strategy will
production, they did so on a fantastic scale as epitomized by the Willow always be a difficult, uncertain, and individual process. Strategy ("The
Run Bomber plant that built "A bomber An Hour." General's Art") is still, largely, an art. But, that should not prevent us
from bringing the available science to bear on the problem.
Developing your Manufacturing Strategy is what this site and Strategos
is all about.

References
Special thanks Norman Bodek who contributed details about developments at Toyota and the transfer of these
Ford Model T - 100 Years Later discoveries to the West.
SORENSEN, CHARLES E., My Forty Years With Ford. New York: W.W. Norton, 1956.
KANIGAL, ROBERT, The One Best Way, New York: Penguin, 1997.
LACEY, ROBERT, Ford: The Men and The Machine, Boston, MA, Little Brown, 1986.

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