TITLE : KANBAN JUST-IN-TIME AT TOYOTA: MANAGEMENT BEGINS AT THE WORKPLACE. REVISED ED.

Preface I have visited Toyota's assembly plant a couple of times, and each time I've been impressed by the relaxed manner in which its workers go about their work. "Work smarter, not harder," says Dr. W. Edwards Deming, the Dean of quality control activities, in whose honor a prestigious Japanese prize is named. The Toyota workers seem to typify that spirit while producing world-class quality cars.

For Toyota to reach this stage of development and sophistication, it had to go through a rather rocky road. In 1949, it was at the brink of bankruptcy, and the consensus in Japan in those early postwar years was that Japan was not fit to produce passenger cars. America was then at least eight times as efficient as Japan in car production. Nevertheless, a determined Toyota president, Kiichiro Toyoda, issued a challenge to Toyota to catch up with the United States within three years.

"America's productivity is probably greater than eight or nine times. However, I cannot believe that Americans are physically exerting ten times as much energy as the Japanese," Taiichi Ohno thought to himself when he heard Toyoda's challenge. "It's probably that the Japanese are very wasteful in their production system." Ohno's solution was to organize a production system which was dedicated to total elimination of waste. The Toyota production system had its genesis in this thought process.

The Toyota system brings inventory down to close to nothing through' the application of the just-in-time system. To make this system function smoothly, the subsequent process must come to the preceding process to withdraw parts and materials at the time needed and in the quantity needed.

The preceding process must produce only the exact quantity withdrawn by the subsequent process. To indicate which process needs what and to allow various processes to communicate with each other efficiently, the kanban system was created. The company's production plan is given only to the final assembly line. When it goes to the preceding process to withdraw parts and materials, it establishes a chain of communication with each preceding process, and every process automatically knows how much and when to produce the parts and materials it is assigned to produce.

Another characteristic of the Toyota system is automation with a human touch. Machines are taught to do what people can do, and when they produce detectives, they are taught to stop automatically. In his carefully written work, Toyota Production System: Practical Approach to Production Management (1983), Professor Yasuhiro Monden describes this phenomenon with the term autonomation. Yes, machines are taught to be autonomous, but somehow this term does not fully convey the meaning which Mr. Ohno intended. The original Japanese term is ninben no tsuita jidoka. The word jidoka means automation. Here the key to our understanding can be found in the first word, ninben, which is a radical added to the Chinese or Japanese character to make it represent the action of a human being. Ohno added this ninben to the second character of the word jidoka (automation), which standing alone would have simply meant "to move," but with the addition of the ninben meant "to work." And the entire phrase would assume a different meaning suggesting that the machines are endowed with human intelligence and touch. Hence my preferred translation of "automation with a human touch."

Machines with these human capabilities stop automatically when abnormalities occur. The art of management is greatly affected by this. As long as the machines function normally, no attendance by the workers is required. Only when a machine stops, or an abnormality occurs, is there a need for a worker to be present. Thus it becomes possible for one worker to handle a number of machines sequentially. Visual control also becomes possible when hidden defects or abnormalities are made apparent. The Toyota system is rational and cost effective. Along with the institution of the one-shot exchange of dies, it allows production of many different styles and types of cars in small lots. The Toyota system did not receive the accolades it deserved in the mid-1950s through the 1960s when Japan experienced an annual double-digit percentage increase in its gross national product. Only when the first oil shock of 1973 exposed the limit to Japan's economic expansion was close attention paid by other industries to the utility and potentials suggested by the Toyota system. In a period of slower growth, it provides a role model for other sectors to follow, showing that profits can still be made by changing the methods of production.

The book that is translated here is an outgrowth of a series of seminars conducted by the Japan Management Association in the mid-1970s to teach others about the Toyota production system. The seminar instructors were Taiichi Ohno, then an executive vice president, and staff members of the production control division of Toyota Motor. The instructional text written by theToyota staff for these seminars serves as the basis of this book, which has been edited and revised by the editorial writers of the Japan Management Association. It was first published in 1978. By the summer of 1985 it had reached its 35th printing and become one of the bestread management books in Japan. Its appeal comes from its easy to understand style and from its homespun wisdom found both in the text and in the sayings of Ohno interspersed with the text. As companies, especially small and medium-sized ones, groped for ways to survive under difficult economic and social conditions, the Toyota method of workplace management, as shown in this book, gave them new direction and encouragement.

Can the Toyota production system be applied with benefit in the United States? The answer is definitely in the affirmative. This is so because Americans, like the Japanese, are relational/people who can select and adopt the most suitable system for their own society, and the very rationality of the Toyota system should appeal to the American mind. The Toyota system can teach us how to eliminate wastes which are often not apparent to us. It is a system that demands that employees do their best, but does not overwork them. The system establishes itself as a friend of the workers and not their adversary. Implicit in the system is the philosophy of respect for humanity. The sense of trust created between management and the workers can promote efficiency and at the same time a relaxed feeling.

We may or may not trasplant, graft or reject outright the just-in-time system for our manufacturing industries. But it is good to remember that Mr. Ohno received the inspiration for this system by observing the working of an American supermarket. Food items picked up by the customers were replaced "just in time" on the shelf for the next round of customers. If an American supermarket can inspire a major Japanese automaker to excel in its production method, so can the latter help the Americans stage a comeback to regain their industrial prominence.

David J. Lu