Lean Enterprise Institute Logo
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter Signup
  • Cart (0)
  • Account
  • Search
Lean Enterprise Institute Logo
  • Explore Lean
        • What is Lean?
        • The Lean Transformation Framework
        • A Brief History of Lean
        • Lexicon Terms
        • Topics to explore
          • Operations
          • Lean Product & Process Development
          • Administration & Support
          • Problem-Solving
          • Coaching
          • Executive Leadership
          • Line Management
  • The Lean Post
        • Subscribe to see exclusive content
          • Subscribe
        • Featured posts
          customer satisfaction icons

          How Can Lean Help Manage the Costs...

          blocks that spell put incentive

          Ask Art: How Do You Align Incentives...

          • See all Posts
  • Events & Training
        • Custom Coaching and Learning Experiences
        • Co-Learning Partnerships
        • Forms and Templates
        • Featured learning
          • Building a Lean Operating and Management System 

            February 02, 2023 | Boston, MA

          • Lean Summit 2023

            March 08, 2023 | Optional Pre-Summit Workshops March 6-7
            Tucson, Arizona

          • Key Concepts of Lean Management Remotely 

            March 13, 2023 | Online Live Course

          • Improvement Kata/Coaching Kata Remotely

            April 10, 2023 | Online Live Course

          • See all Events
  • Store
        • Shopping Cart
        • Featured books
          Managing to Learn: Using the A3 management process

          Managing to Learn: Using the A3 management process

          Learning to See

          Learning to See

          • See all Books
  • About Us
        • Our people
          • Senior Advisors and Staff
          • Faculty
          • Board of Directors
        • Contact Us
        • Lean Global Network
        • Press Releases
        • In the News
        • Careers
        • About us

The Lean Post / Articles / “But TPS Doesn’t Apply to Us….”

“But TPS Doesn’t Apply to Us….”

Executive Leadership

“But TPS Doesn’t Apply to Us….”

By Mark Graban

March 25, 2019

Yes, cars are not weaving looms. Patients are not cars, either. Airplanes are not cars. Electric vehicles are not the same as internal-combustion engine vehicles. We can play that “one of these things is not like the other” game all day long. A better use of time, perhaps, is to think about how TPS concepts and high-level Lean management principles can be adapted to your own setting, argues Mark Graban.

FacebookTweetLinkedInEmailPrintComment

One comment on Jeff Liker’s recent Lean Post about Tesla brought up the notion of people saying “[we are] different, we make no cars, we can’t apply TPS.” If you’ve tried to introduce Lean in a setting outside of the automotive industry, you’ve likely heard the complaint of “we’re different” (as I blogged about back in 2009).

It can be true that “you’re different” while the implication of “therefore, Lean doesn’t apply here” is, at the same time, false. It’s unfortunate, and it slows down progress when people frame the discussion as “we’re different” instead of asking, “How can we apply (and adapt) these approaches to our organization?”

In healthcare, we’ve all heard statements “patients aren’t cars” and “a hospital is not a factory.” (I’ve written about this before, too.) These statements are factually correct, but Lean has been proven to help in healthcare (as in many other settings).

I’ve been fortunate to take three trips to Japan with healthcare executives, physicians, and Lean practitioners from around the world. We visited Toyota, other factories, and a few hospitals that were on their Lean journey.

One required stop, in Nagoya, is The Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology.

As you walk through, you see artifacts like the Toyota “AA” car that was first produced in 1936:

AA car

This car is located about mid-way through the museum. Why is that? The first part of the museum covers Toyota’s early corporate history, starting with being founded by Sakichi Toyoda as “Toyota Automatic Loom Works, Ltd.” in 1926.

So what did Toyoda, the company, do for 10 years before their car was produced? Go back and read that again… “automatic loom works.” What’s that?

early loom

You can also see a short video I shot of one of those looms in operation a few years back.

The amazing thing that you learn (and see demonstrated) is how the “Type G” loom, from 1924 was designed to stop automatically when it detected a broken thread. Here is another photo of one of those looms:

type G loom

So, this is the origin story for the concept of “jidoka” or the idea of built-in quality, as their sign explained:

jidoka origin

We might also call this “error proofing” and it’s an early example of stopping production when there is a quality problem. If the machine didn’t stop automatically, it would have to be attended to by a worker. There was a one-to-one ratio of workers to looms because they had to manually watch and stop the machine when the thread broke. Otherwise, a defective cloth would look like this (with two runs marked by the red arrows):

cloth defects

In modern Lean and TPS, we often talk about “person-machine separation” meaning that a person isn’t stuck just watching a machine run. The innovations of the Type G loom allowed much greater productivity, as a worker could “run” or monitor “30 to 50 looms.”

productivity quote

All of these TPS and Lean concepts were created prior to 1936. It has always made me wonder if the newly-formed Toyota Motor Company had some people who looked at the lessons from Toyoda Automatic Loom Works and then said, “But we’re different! We don’t make weaving looms!”

Yes, cars are not weaving looms. Patients are not cars, either. Airplanes are not cars. Electric vehicles are not the same as internal-combustion engine vehicles. We can play that “one of these things is not like the other” game all day long. A better use of time, perhaps, is to think about how TPS concepts and high-level Lean management principles can be adapted to your own setting.

FacebookTweetLinkedInEmailPrintComment

Written by:

Mark Graban

About Mark Graban

Mark Graban is an internationally-recognized consultant, author, professional speaker, podcaster, and entrepreneur. He builds upon a deep education in engineering and management with practical experience working with executives and frontline employees in multiple industries to synthesize and practice methods including Lean management, continuous improvement, statistical methods, and people-centered leadership approaches.…

Read more about Mark Graban

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related

customer satisfaction icons

Executive Leadership

How Can Lean Help Manage the Costs and Complications of Satisfying Customers During Rapid Growth?

Article by Michael Ballé and Nicolas Chartier

blocks that spell put incentive

Executive Leadership

Ask Art: How Do You Align Incentives for a Lean Turnaround?

Article by Art Byrne

Why Lean Remains a Superior Business Model and Way of Thinking

Executive Leadership

Why Lean Remains a Superior Business Model and Way of Thinking

Article by Dan Jones

Related books

The Gold Mine (Audio CD)

The Gold Mine (Audio CD)

by Freddy Ballé and Michael Ballé

The Gold Mine Trilogy 4 Book Set

The Gold Mine Trilogy 4 Book Set

by Freddy Ballé and Michael Ballé

Related events

March 08, 2023 | Optional Pre-Summit Workshops March 6-7
Tucson, Arizona

Lean Summit 2023

Learn more

April 17, 2023 | Online Live Course

Developing Structured Problem-Solving and Leadership Skills using A3 Thinking: Managing to Learn Remotely

Learn more

Explore topics

Executive Leadership graphic icon Executive Leadership
Line Management graphic icon Line Management
Operations graphic icon Operations

Subscribe to get the very best of lean thinking delivered right to your inbox

Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

©Copyright 2000-2023 Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.
Lean Enterprise Institute, the leaper image, and stick figure are registered trademarks of Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Learn More. ACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT
Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!