The Toyota Production System (TPS), Lean Manufacturing, and Traditional Manufacturing are all methods or tools and techniques used in producing some "thing" or output. Some organizations have had enormous success in implementing one or more of these techniques while others have failed. Failure can most likely be attributed to a misunderstanding of manufacturing concepts and poor implementation strategies. An organization that is known for having had incredible success with lean manufacturing strategies in information technology (IT) is Dell. What made it work for them? What did they do differently to be successful? .
The Toyota Production System (TPS).
The father of the TPS was architected by a man name Taiichi Ohono. In the early 1940's Taiichi Ohno was working for Toyota and was experimenting with a variety of production techniques to improve efficiency. In 1956, he traveled to the United States (U.S.) to observe production practices with Ford Motor Company. As the story goes, his inspiration did not come from Ford, but from a shopping experience at an American supermarket. He was very impressed with how customers were able to pick and choose exactly what they wanted. Ohno went back to Japan and set out to implement these ideas from the supermarket to building cars and thus was born The Toyota Production System ("Toyota History," 2015). The Toyota Production System is built upon two pillars: Just In Time (JIT) and Jidoka. JIT is the technique of supplying materials in the right quantity, at the right time, and at the right location. The basic premise is that of quality control and is at the heart of the TPS. Jidoka, the second pillar, fuses people and machines wherein people perform the tasks in which they are able and machines self-regulate the quality. Dell was built on its successes in using the concepts of JIT manufacturing.
History of Dell.
Dell's expertise was based on selling their PC's directly to their customers by cutting out retailers and wholesalers.
