[HN Gopher] The Toyota Production System
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       The Toyota Production System
        
       Author : louis-paul
       Score  : 77 points
       Date   : 2021-01-03 11:19 UTC (11 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (blog.toyota.co.uk)
 (TXT) w3m dump (blog.toyota.co.uk)
        
       | nateberkopec wrote:
       | If you produce physical goods of any kind, Shigeo Shingo should
       | absolutely be required reading. His ideas around quality control
       | and setup times still sound revolutionary even now.
        
       | eesmith wrote:
       | Can anyone comment here on the "Uddevalla concept"? Quoting
       | https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/10785.html :
       | 
       | > Both researchers and practitioners in industrial organization
       | ask themselves today whether lean production is the only possible
       | model for the future. Enriching Production proposes a radically
       | different alternative, which was put into practice at Volvo's
       | Uddevalla plant during its brief life span.
       | 
       | The book "Enriching Production" is at https://mpra.ub.uni-
       | muenchen.de/10785/1/MPRA_paper_10785.pdf .
       | 
       | As I have no experience with lean nor with automotive production
       | history, I find it hard to interpret.
        
       | neves wrote:
       | I've lost my faith in all this Just int Time marketing stuff. I
       | tried to buy a specific Toyota car in Brazil and they said that
       | it would take 6 months to get me one. I don't know which kind of
       | legal bureaucracy created this, but I went with a Honda.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | pulse7 wrote:
         | If you want to buy a >>specific<< configuration of any brand,
         | you will have to wait for months - even for Honda...
        
         | CamperBob2 wrote:
         | More important to the consumer, JIT often means waiting weeks
         | for replacement parts to be back-ordered several levels up the
         | chain. It's a mistake to think there are no downsides to this
         | methodology.
         | 
         | Ultimately JIT manufacturing should be seen for what it is:
         | central planning in action. Good for the central planners,
         | certainly, but not for the end users.
        
           | mschuster91 wrote:
           | Following JIT practices in production does not mean that one
           | has to abolish spare parts storage.
           | 
           | The only ones known to have _massive_ problems with spare
           | part supply issues is Tesla, which is a contributing factor
           | in their high insurance rates (e.g. per
           | https://electrek.co/2017/06/05/tesla-owners-insurance-
           | rates/).
        
           | adingus wrote:
           | JIT doesn't mean you should carry no inventory or wait for
           | orders. You should carry enough stock that you sell out of
           | just in time for the replenishment to arrive.
        
             | mschuster91 wrote:
             | The practical implementation of JIT production is to get
             | rid of (expensive) warehouses and instead have rolling
             | trucks on streets be the warehouse - you need the trucks
             | anyway to transport stuff, but now you don't have to pay
             | for the space as roads are owned by the public.
        
               | drewcoo wrote:
               | Sounds like the drug dealer model, where product is
               | largely delivered to customers as they need it. Large
               | stashes of drugs have additional potential downside,
               | making the model more attractive than normal.
        
       | eatonphil wrote:
       | I highly recommend the books "Toyota Production System" and "The
       | Machine That Changed The World" for a background on the
       | manufacturing cousin/ancestor of agile software development.
       | 
       | I wish there were newer studies though that cover the rise of
       | Hyundai/Kia quality in the last two decades. If you know of any
       | please let me know.
        
         | DubiousPusher wrote:
         | Absolutely mind blowing to watch that transformation. And not
         | just in durability and features but in aesthetics as well. A
         | BMW interior is still a BMW interior but the interior of a 2020
         | Hyundai is much closer to the interior of a 2020 BMW than the
         | interior of a 2002 Hyundai was to the interior of a 2020 BMW.
         | 
         | This is one are where others impress as well. Even GM and Ford
         | have come far in this regard.
        
           | mixmastamyk wrote:
           | Guessing that last 2020 was supposed to be a 2002?
        
         | Judgmentality wrote:
         | > I wish there were newer studies though that cover the rise of
         | Hyundai/Kia quality in the last two decades.
         | 
         | I realize this is a tangent, but the fact that Hyundai managed
         | to build this and sell it with a 10 year warranty is
         | incredible.
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhsgdwUX1-w
        
         | LeifCarrotson wrote:
         | Recently read "The machine that changed the world", and I too
         | wish there was a more recent study. I've worked in several
         | Michigan and Indiana tier 1s and OEM plants, and seen some of
         | the differences described, but the book is 30 years old now.
         | The fundamentals are still fundamental, and culture change is
         | really, really slow, but everyone's making improvements.
        
       | m3kw9 wrote:
       | Notice the blurred pics being presented as motion blur trying to
       | do seal "secrets"
        
       | neom wrote:
       | As a huge Ed Deming fan, I'd recommend these books:
       | 
       | - The Essential Deming: Leadership Principles from the Father of
       | Quality: https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Deming-Leadership-
       | Principle...
       | 
       | - The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education:
       | https://www.amazon.com/Economics-Industry-Government-Educati...
       | 
       | - The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's
       | Greatest Manufacturer: https://www.amazon.com/Toyota-Way-
       | Management-Principles-Manu...
       | 
       | Deming is really a great thinking in the area of product
       | development and agile methodologies.
        
         | vvanders wrote:
         | Another great perspective is This American Life's episode on
         | the NUMMI plant[1]. Coming full circle from Deming back to GM.
         | 
         | [1] https://www.thisamericanlife.org/561/nummi-2015
        
           | petra wrote:
           | I haven't listened to the podcast yet, so - why NUMMI we're
           | not able to copy the Toyota production system - given that
           | Toyota has sent them experienced advisors ?
        
             | DubiousPusher wrote:
             | They did actually. I can't remember why specifically they
             | closed the plant in the end. But one of the overriding laws
             | of global capitalism is that it's possible to do everything
             | right but and still lose cause of a trade deal or an
             | acquisition or a global recession or...
        
             | dharmab wrote:
             | NUMMI was a success, but that success was not replicated at
             | other GM plants. NUMMI closed during the recession as GM
             | discontinued brands like Pontiac due to severely reduced
             | demand.
             | 
             | Today a large part of the land is a Tesla factory.
        
               | vvanders wrote:
               | Yeah, they cover it pretty well in the podcast. By the
               | numbers NUMMI did well however to achieve those figures
               | they upended many traditional roles and couldn't get the
               | leadership in GM to get on board.
               | 
               | There's a great little footnote at the end of the podcast
               | about a small upstart company buying the plant with the
               | vision of building electric cars in the future.
        
           | wpietri wrote:
           | Seconded. It's such a good portrait. The way the workers
           | talked about the change sticks with me years later.
           | 
           | Adding to the recommendations, I found Rother's _Toyota Kata_
           | very valuable in understanding how to make Lean approaches
           | work: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Kata
           | 
           | For applying it in software, I loved Mary Poppendieck's
           | books, which are listed about half-way down the page here:
           | http://www.poppendieck.com/
           | 
           | And for the math-inclined, Reinertsen's "Principles of
           | Product Development Flow" is very insightful:
           | https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Product-Development-
           | Flow-G...
        
       | mcot2 wrote:
       | There are a lot of amazing concepts that Toyota developed. It
       | requires a lot of discipline, focus and commitment to implement
       | properly.
       | 
       | One thing I didn't see mentioned that Tesla is currently doing is
       | a very strong relationship between design and production. The
       | upcoming Cybertruck for example doesn't have paint and it has an
       | exoskeleton design that should be much easier to produce. Over
       | the years I have not seen any radical designs from Toyota that
       | suggest that the ease of production was influencing radical
       | design choices.
        
         | throwaway0a5e wrote:
         | Designing for production became highly unfashionable because
         | the big three did it extensively in the 1970s and 1980s
         | resulting in very efficient production of cars nobody wanted.
        
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