Toyota system

LEAN PRIMER by Craig Larman and Bas Vodde
Version 1.5
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Craig Larman and Bas Vodde are the authors of Scaling Lean & Agile Development. They work as management coaches in organizations adopting lean thinking.
For consulting or more information, please see craiglarman.com and odd-e.com.
Note: Lean thinking and the Toyota Way are large subjects, spanning application to product development, service, sales, HR, and production, and spanning many functions: management, design, delivery, and more. We encourage deeper study; see Recommended Readings at the end.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
• Introduction 2
• Lean Thinking: The Big Picture 3
• Background 7
• Lean Summary: The Lean Thinking House 8
• Lean Goal: Sustainably Deliver Value Fast 9
• Lean Foundation: Lean Thinking Manager-Teachers 10
• Pillar One: Respect for People 12
• Pillar Two: Continuous Improvement 14
• 14 Principles 25
• Lean Product Development 34

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1

Lean Primer

INTRODUCTION
I have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something.
—Jackie Mason

Lean thinking is a proven system that applies to product development and production, as evidenced by Toyota and others. And although most often applied to products, it is also used in service areas—both within Toyota and in domains such as health care1.
The image and metaphor we like to convey a key thinking mistake—and opportunity—is the sport of relay racing.
Consider the relay racers standing around waiting for the baton from their running colleague. The accountant in the finance department, looking aghast at this terrible underutilization ‘waste’ indicated in some report, would probably mandate a policy goal of “95% utilization of resources” to ensure all the

Bibliography: Fujimoto99. Fujimoto, T., 1999. The Evolution of a Manufacturing System at Toyota, Productivity Press George02 Hino06. Hino, S., 2006. Inside the Mind of Toyota: Management Principles for Enduring Growth, Productivity Press Imai86 Ishikawa85. Ishikawa, K., 1985. What Is Total Quality Control? The Japanese Way, Prentice Hall Ishikawa86 Kato06. Kato, I., 2006. Summary Notes from Art Smalley Interview with Mr. Isao Kato, at http://artoflean.com/documents/pdfs/Mr_Kato_Interview_on_TWI_and_TPS.pdf LH08 Liker04. Liker, J., 2004. The Toyota Way, McGraw-Hill LM06a LM06b. Liker, J., Morgan J., 2006. The Toyota Product Development System, Productivity Press LM07 McGrath96. McGrath, M., 1996. Setting the PACE in Product Development, Butterworth-Heinemann McGrath04 NTI84. Nonaka, I., Takeuchi, H., Imai, H., 1984. “Managing the New Product Development Process: How Japanese Companies Learn and Unlearn,” Harvard Business School 75th Anniversary Colloquium, also in Ohno88. Ohno, T., 1988. The Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-scale Production, Productivity Press OST08 Parkinson57. Parkinson, C., 1957. Parkinson’s Law, Buccaneer Books Poppendieck, M., Poppendieck, T., 2006 Reinertsen09. Reinertsen, D., 2009. The Principles of Product Development Flow, Celeritas Publishing RS99 Smith, P., 2007. Flexible Product Development: Building Agility for Changing Markets, Jossey-Bass SR98 Toyota01. Toyota, 2001. Toyota Way 2001, Toyota Motor Company Toyota08 Ward06. Ward, A., 2006. Lean Product and Process Development, Lean Enterprise Institute WJR90 WJ96. Womack, J., Jones, D. T., 1996. Lean Thinking, Free Press www.leanprimer.com