Lean Is Missing Something...What Is It?

Yasuhiro Monden said this about the Toyota Production System, "I think the most important feature of the TPS is the "Just-In-Time" (JIT) concept. This is the concept of a system to make a product that is needed at the right time, in the right quantity. Many books just emphasize kaizen but JIT is the central part of the TPS." (http://lean-manufacturing-japan.com/interviews/toyota-production-system-part1.html). Ohno's belief that their JIT system was important is illustrated in the forward to his book "The Toyota Production System, Beyond Large-Scale Production". "...Mr. Ohno believed just-in-time was a manufacturing advantage for Toyota. And for many years, he would not allow anything to be recorded about it." (The Toyota Production System, Ohno, pg. xi). This importance is largely lost in our tool-oriented lean world. It seems there's a lot of disbelief that "job shops" can pull production. Isn't this what Ohno addressed with auto manufacturing? With thousands of option combinations, there are very few cars manufactured that are identical. It's true that you can't order anything (Ex: a  porange colored car) from Toyota. There are limits. But shouldn't any business have some limits? Shouldn't applying some limits be part of a company's vision? Of course. Yet, even with option limits, the number of possible combinations is probably in the tens of thousands. The genius is that Toyota has standardized this variation. They use the pull method to do what cannot be accomplished with schedule-driven production. Namely, synchronization and pace. Toyota has a schedule that determines the "what" and the "by when". But the schedule does not dictate the "how". The pull method is the "how". It can and should be used in all businesses. Paraphrasing Ohno..."The Toyota Production System is a management system that will work in any type of business".

Obviously nobody involved with Lean Six Sigma would ignore TPS, we respect the vision and leadership of people who have studied this for decades, including Professor Bob Emiliani ( who I believe is more in line with your way of thinking ), however I am in the Osamu Higo camp and my experience having worked and consulted across several different sectors is that Lean Thinking is better when it is separated from TPS ... it can and should be adjusted according to the process, product, service. It is not binary... it is a continuous spectrum. Lean príncipes applied to Banks, Retail, Hospitals, Education, Agriculture, Mining, Transport etc can be in various degrees across the spectrum... and it is counterproductive to try to apply a pure standard TPS ‘template’ to other industries.

Phil Ledbetter. Big assumption. If you have been involved in deploying Lean/TPST. You know track record doesn't help since the vast majority of Lean initiatives are wrongly deployed and unsustainable confirms that. Available data indicates that any Lean/TPS initiative is wrongly deployed and unsustainable because of lack of Organization Readiness and lack of Change Governance Management. Just look around. Why do you think that After so many years companies keep missing something critical and keep doing something wrong when deploying Lean/TPS? I am interested