History of lean manufacturingMany people commonly understand that lean manufacturing concepts and practices were developed for the Toyota manufacturing system. This is correct. But Lean manufacturing history is little bit more than that. Lean manufacturing concepts were used by some other very famous manufacturing system before Toyota did it. Ford automobile manufacturers used similar concepts to manufacture their model T automobile. Henry Ford’s idea about continuous assembly lines, and flow systems are considered as very important concepts of lean manufacturing even today. Ford’s system eventually fell apart with time due to inherent problems of the system. Bad attitude towards workers, inflexibility of the system were main factors in the Ford’s system. The next step of this manufacturing revolution began in Japan, with Toyoda family, when they shifted from textile equipment manufacturing to Automobile manufacturing. By late 1940’s Japan industry was collapsed and economy was badly affected by the World War II. In addition, Japanese manufacturers faced many problems. Limited sources of raw materials, labor movements, and limited capital availability are few of them. Meanwhile, automobile manufacturers faced another problem. They could not compete with the already existing (Although declining) forces of west. Especially players like Ford, simply out performed small manufacturers like Toyota. Therefore they could not compete on the overseas markets. This made Japanese manufacturers to produce for their local markets. These markets were very diversified and small. Challenged by these demands Toyota gave the task of making a system which will stand in these conditions to Taichii Ohno. Ohno with his collegue Shingo created a manufacturing system for next three decades, which is known as Toyota Production System (TPS). The roots of this system were clearly linked to the Ford’s system. Actually all the managers in Toyota said to learn the Ford’s system. Fortunately though, they did not simply copy the Ford’s system. Instead they clearly understood the pluses and minuses of the system. They impart the Pluses to their system, while eliminating the problems. This manufacturing method got the influence of the Quality movements in USA. Especially thinking of people like Juran and Deming influenced the Toyota production system. Starting from mid 1940s to 1970s Toyota production system was developed continuously. By this time TPS was doing very well. With the economic problems Japan faced in the years 1974, many Japanese companies experienced losses. But Toyota was continuo to be a success even in this period. This made many Japanese manufacturers to look in to this system as an alternative to their problems. JIT or TPS started gaining popularity within Japan. US manufacturers were wondering about the growth of the Japanese industry and did not have a clue. Norman Bodek is the first to publish the work of Ohno and Shingo in English. It made the awareness among the US manufacturers about lean manufacturing. Lean from their onwards became a buzzword in manufacturing. By mid 1990s many US manufacturers were using this system to good effect. Today, lean manufacturing has got the next step in it’s development. Lean manufacturers now become lean enterprises. Lean manufacturing stretch out from the factory premises to all of stake holders. This includes suppliers, customers and all the influencing parties. Lean enterprise concepts are focused on all the people in the supply chain to get the best possible value from the collective effort. Lean manufacturing makes history even today, with a very high phase. |
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