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Lean Production

While the fundamental principles of lean production outlined in the 1990 book by Womach and Jones still apply, lean thinking has evolved significantly. Toyota was able to become the world's largest automaker by 2019 by applying the lean philosophy developed by the Toyoda family and Taiichi Ohno. However, during the 2008 economic crisis, many companies enhanced their production processes by integrating approaches like Six Sigma and Theory of Constraints. Now known as lean management, it focuses on continuously improving company-wide policies to efficiently leverage human resources and maximize organizational effectiveness through leadership and communication. Lean management has become one of the most widely used production methods as it emphasizes the human element of production, unlike lean production which only considers the value stream.

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Filip Slavchev
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178 views2 pages

Lean Production

While the fundamental principles of lean production outlined in the 1990 book by Womach and Jones still apply, lean thinking has evolved significantly. Toyota was able to become the world's largest automaker by 2019 by applying the lean philosophy developed by the Toyoda family and Taiichi Ohno. However, during the 2008 economic crisis, many companies enhanced their production processes by integrating approaches like Six Sigma and Theory of Constraints. Now known as lean management, it focuses on continuously improving company-wide policies to efficiently leverage human resources and maximize organizational effectiveness through leadership and communication. Lean management has become one of the most widely used production methods as it emphasizes the human element of production, unlike lean production which only considers the value stream.

Uploaded by

Filip Slavchev
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Lean Production

What, if anything has changed since the Womach/Jones 1990 book was written? Is Lean still
important today? If so, how are businesses impacted?

Ever since the 1990 Womach/Jones Book that detailed the revolutionary lean process and its
fundamental principles that underpin the production philosophy—still pertain to much of
today’s manufacturing world. In fact, since the book’s inception, Toyoda—who developed
the foundations of lean production— rose up through the automotive ranks to become the
world’s largest automaker in the world by sales, with 10 725 000 units sold () in 2019.
Toyoda’s success can be attributed to the mostly unchanged, yet reliable ‘lean philosophy’
created by Sakichi Toyoda, and his sons Kiichiro Toyoda and Eiji Toyoda as well as Taiichi
Ohno, a manufacturing engineer. However, the lean system saw significant changes during
the world economic crisis of 2008 as many companies sought this opportunity to enhance
and more thoroughly streamline production. The corollary involved manufacturing
companies integrating modern management methods and approaches such as “Six Sigma,
Theory of Constraints, Total Quality Management or Lean Management” (Dekier, Ł. 2012,
p.46). Definitively speaking, lean management—the successor to the famous Toyoda
Production System and Lean Manufacturing— is a method of managing companies that
assumes adaptation to the actual market conditions via organizational and functional
alternations (p.49). At its foundation, lean management aims to structure and polish
company-wide company policies, in such fashion that efficiently leverages company assets to
increase general organizational effectiveness. Such policies may include and are not limited
to: continued professional development, setting objectives, effective communication, proper
motivation, maximizing human potential and finally—fostering leadership (p.49). These
principles stand in stark contrast to those of lean production; lean production merely
focuses on the value stream of production itself, while lean management focuses instead on
the human element of production. Owing to its efficacy, lean management—the successor to
lean production—is one of the most popular and widely-used production philosophies in the
world. Ever since the beginnings of ‘lean’, it is really quite remarkable to see the status quo
undergo such unprecedented change and move towards a more progressive and human-
centric model. This is just, as it sets the stage for the future of production, as economies
become highly automated, and the value of the human touch becoming ever more valuable.

Dekier, Ł. (2012). The Origins and Evolution of Lean Management System. Journal Of
International Studies, 5(1), 46–51. doi: 10.14254/2071-8330.2012/5-1/6

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