{"id":70108,"date":"2022-06-19T14:36:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-19T18:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=70108"},"modified":"2022-06-29T10:50:40","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T14:50:40","slug":"toyota-lean-manufacturing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/toyota-lean-manufacturing\/","title":{"rendered":"Toyota: Lean Manufacturing at the Factory Level"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How does Toyota use lean manufacturing at the factory level? How does it make production more efficient?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In The Toyota Way<\/a><\/em>, engineering professor and lean manufacturing consultant Jeffrey Liker describes the work practices known as lean manufacturing. Liker uses Toyota’s use of lean manufacturing to show how it works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below we’ll look at how Toyota’s lean manufacturing is implemented at the modeling stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Lean Manufacturing at the Factory Level<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The biggest goal of Toyota’s lean manufacturing is to eliminate waste and increase efficiency. This starts with Toyota’s production line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Liker explains, Toyota models its production line as a \u201cpull system\u201d: a system in which customer demand for a product<\/a> \u201cpulls\u201d the product through the assembly line<\/strong>. One example of a typical pull system is a restaurant: A customer’s order for a particular dish sets in motion the processes needed to produce the dish. This contrasts with more traditional \u201cpush systems,\u201d in which a manufacturer produces a set number of products and sends them out to be sold, regardless of whether the retailer already has the item in stock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: Price discounts in stores are often the result of push systems. Many retailers offer discounts to get rid of products quickly when they\u2019ve received a new shipment of products but haven\u2019t finished selling the last round.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toyota also uses pull systems to move work in progress from station to station. When workers involved in downstream processes are ready for more parts, they use signals (kanban<\/em>) to communicate this to upstream workers. Kanban<\/em> can be as complex as a digital signal or as simple as returning an empty bin to be filled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cvalue stream\u201d is the sequence of actions in the assembly line that add value for the customer<\/strong>. Everything else is seen as waste. Liker explains that Toyota uses value stream mapping<\/a> to identify which parts of the process add value and which can be minimized or eliminated. To map the value stream, team members draw a box for each workstation in the assembly line. They then go and look at what happens between each process and make notes regarding the transitions between workstations. Are parts transported long distances? Do they wait in queues? Are the workers moving efficiently? They record all of this information in the gaps between the boxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One-piece flow is a depiction of the perfect value stream<\/strong>. In one-piece flow, products move through the plant undergoing only processes that add value, with no wasted time or materials. One-piece flow is the opposite of traditional \u201cbatch and queue\u201d manufacturing practices, in which large quantities of parts are produced well ahead of time and then sit in queues waiting to be processed. One-piece flow is also called a \u201cjust-in-time\u201d<\/strong> system, as each workstation receives the parts just in time to work on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Seven Wastes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Value stream mapping allows you to pinpoint wastes. Liker lists seven types of waste:<\/p>\n\n\n\n