Lean Enterprise: A Method

Abstract

The Toyota Way is based on a set of principles developed by the company for its own use, leaving open the path for developing methods to implement the principles. Implementation of TPS worldwide has followed multifarious methods depending on how enterprises believed and promoted solutions based on the principles. It is true that lack of implementation methodologies, in combination with the tooling nature that those principles acquired in the West, has led to the rise of two main schools of lean thinking. The first school was totally based on the principles and tools created by the Japanese of Toyota and their supporters who dogmatically adhered to their way of thinking and practice. The second school developed methods which incorporated the Toyota tools and demonstrated how they could be used to achieve a lean environment. The aim was to adapt both the principles and the tools to Western ways of thinking and practice. This chapter is devoted to the same aim. 6.1