What is the staying power of the Toyota Production System?
The system is much more than a passing management fad like TQM/TQC, Business Process Re-engineering, Theory of Constraints, or any other such short lived topics. TPS has been in existence for decades dating at least back to the early 1950’s in Toyota City Japan. Since that time it has been under development initially under the direction of Taiichi Ono and other key members of Toyota Motor Corporation. Rather than think of TPS as a recent phenomenon as is the tendency in the West, it should be viewed as an achievement that has constantly been refined and improved upon for over 50 years. With this much time for experimentation and confirmation of results behind the system it will not be going away any time soon. Also unlike other improvement programs that generally advocate a theoretical tool of the inventor or consultant TPS is a rock solid set of proven techniques that aim for a waste free ideal condition in any process. In other words it strives to improve profits and achieve the maxi
