Beyond Lean manufacturing - Operation management / Performance improvement

  • Thread starter ramvaidhya - 2009
  • Start date
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ramvaidhya - 2009

Hello all,

Do we have any new thing coming up in Operation management / Performance improvement? I agree lean itself will drive improvements in industry for another 20yrs ...:read:
Still Toyota is just doing Lean or working on something else? It would be interesting to know what is in the nest?:magic:

Wishes,
Ram Vaidhya
 
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wmarhel

Re: Beyond Lean manufacturing

Still Toyota is just doing Lean or working on something else? It would be interesting to know what is in the nest?:magic:

Toyota doesn't "do" Lean. Toyota "lives" the Toyota Production System (TPS). The terms Lean and TPS are not synonymous although a lot of consultants would like you to think that. Toyota also takes their methodologies to down a different path. They don’t look at things like kanban, one-piece flow, total productive maintenance, 5S, etc; as items in a toolbox. These are integral components in TPS with a synergistic relationship amongst them. It these methods that allow them to manage their business on a daily basis.

Toyota also utilizes a 3P process (Product Preparation Process or Pre-Production Planning) that attacks various forms of waste during the concept/prototype stages so that it never makes it into the production process. Google the term/s and you won’t find much as it requires a radically different mindset than doing kaizen. Comparing kaizen to 3P is like comparing Jack Daniels to a 20 year old Scotch.

The other issue is that there are still plenty of companies (in manufacturing and service) that haven’t changed from how they were doing business 10-20 years ago. There is plenty of opportunity there, the challenge is convincing them of the need if they have been profitable over the years.

Wayne
 
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